October 6, 2020

OTTAWA—Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, will host two virtual conversations entitled “What is the Universe Made of? Let’s Ask Some Experts.” Two live-streamed sessions will be held on Thursday, October 8, 2020, beginning at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in a separate livestream for both 30-minute conversations

The first session, beginning at 1:30 p.m., will be held in English with Victoria Kaspi, C.C., professor of physics at McGill University and Director of the McGill Space Institute. Her primary research centres on observational studies of neutron stars, during which she uses radio and X-ray telescopes to examine pulsars—rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron stars.

The second session, beginning at 2:30 p.m., will be held in French with René Doyon, professor of physics at l’Université de Montréal and Director of the Observatoire du Mont-Mégantic and of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx). He is also a member of the Royal Society of Canada.

GGconversations is an innovative series that brings Canadians together and connects them with exceptional Canadians from diverse areas of interest. Canadians are invited to submit their questions for the Governor General or her guests via any of the Governor General’s social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or Facebook @GGJuliePayette. Questions may also be submitted live during the conversation or by email to rsvp2@gg.ca. We want to hear from you!

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The English live streams will be available at https://www.gg.ca/en/ggconversations.

The French live streams will be available at https://www.gg.ca/fr/ggconversations.

Following the event, the recorded videos will be posted online at https://www.gg.ca/en/ggconversations.

Media information:

Ashlee Smith
Press Secretary to the Governor General
343-548-1857
ashlee.smith@gg.ca

Follow GGJuliePayette on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.