Our international foundation is hosting a very special dinner in Melbourne, Australia on March 16th featuring Alice Bowman of NASA’s New Horizons Mission. We are delighted that New Horizons: The Woman Who Led Us to Pluto will be sponsored by PwC Australia. Proceeds from the night support research for a cure for KCNQ2.

It was in July, 2015 that Alice Bowman gave a ‘thumbs up” beamed around the world. NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft had successfully completed a daring nine year, 4.2 billion kilometre journey to Pluto. Under Bowman’s leadership, the team had to solve mind-bending technical problems, including how to fix a last-minute glitch which caused them to lose contact with the satellite just days away from Pluto. Their successful efforts resulted in breathtaking images which transformed our knowledge of a planet and our solar system.

Ms Bowman will detail the ingenuity, skill and teamwork required to lead NASA’s most ambitious effort in a generation.

Alice Bowman is the first woman mission operations manager for Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, which designed and operates the spacecraft for NASA. Nearly fifty percent of those in mission control are women and the team exemplifies diversity.

Our event also features Professor Ingrid Scheffer, Loréal-UNESCO Laureate for Women in Science for the Asia-Pacific and Professor at the University of Melbourne and Florey Institute. Dr Scheffer will highlight new horizons in the field of genetics including research for those with rare conditions like KCNQ2.

I’ll moderate the event, which celebrates scientific achievement, women in leadership, and diversity. I had the good fortune to attend high school and university with Alice, who is a wonderful person. We will discuss what it takes to turn the impossible into Mission Accomplished.

This event also showcases U.S./Australian collaboration in science. The efforts of Canberra’s Deep Space Station were integral to the New Horizons mission – a mission which continues to this day. In addition, Professor Scheffer is on the scientific advisory board of the KCNQ2 Cure Alliance Foundation.