Dr. David M. Meyer is Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Director of Dearborn Observatory at Northwestern University. He received a B.S. degree in astrophysics (1980) at the University of Wisconsin and earned his M.A. (1981) and Ph.D. (1984) in astronomy at UCLA. He continued his studies as a McCormick Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Enrico Fermi Institute before joining the Northwestern faculty in 1987. Prof. Meyer'’s research focuses on the composition, structure, and physical conditions of interstellar gas clouds in the Milky Way and other galaxies. Over the past 25 years, much of his research has involved observations obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. His Hubble work has resulted in 30 peer-reviewed publications ranging from the abundance of interstellar oxygen to the gaseous character of distant galaxies. During his career at Northwestern, Prof. Meyer has specialized in designing and teaching introductory undergraduate courses in astronomy, cosmology, and astrobiology for non-science majors. A hallmark of his lectures is the utilization of Hubble images to bring the latest research into the introductory classroom. His success in such efforts has led to a number of teaching awards including Northwestern’s highest teaching honor — the McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence (in 2009). He has also developed and recorded two video courses for the Great Courses entitled Experiencing Hubble: Understanding the Greatest Images of the Universe (2011) and A Visual Guide to the Universe (2014).
 

Dr. François Therrien is the Curator of Dinosaur Palaeoecology at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, Canada. He holds a B.Sc. in Geology from the Université de Montréal, a Master’s degree in Geosciences from the University of Rhode Island, and a Ph.D. in Functional Anatomy & Evolution from the Johns Hopkins University — School of Medicine. For his Master’s degree, François studied the sedimentology and paleosols of the Late Triassic Chinle Formation of Arizona and New Mexico in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironments in which the earliest dinosaurs from North America lived. For his Ph.D., he traveled to Romania to study the sedimentology and paleosols of dinosaur-bearing rock formations in order to reconstruct the paleoenvironments that prevailed at the end of the Age of the Dinosaurs in Transylvania. Fresh out of his Ph.D., François came to the Royal Tyrrell Museum as a NSERC postdoctoral fellow and was hired as a curator in 2006. François’ primary research interests focus on the study of faunal and environmental changes that occurred just before the extinction of the dinosaurs as well as the study of dinosaur behavior, particularly that of extinct predators. Over the years, he has conducted field research in Canada, the USA, Romania, and Mongolia and has participated in numerous documentaries. In 2012, François was involved in the discovery and study of the first feathered dinosaurs from North America.