Making a Difference ~ Tracy Dyson Public Lecture

It’s not often that the Beckman Center is awestruck by an event they hold, but AirUCI managed to astound even the experienced Beckman staff—who have hosted thousands of speakers in the past—with the public’s response to the event we organized for NASA Astronaut Tracy Dyson. 

Tracy is an AirUCI alumna who worked with a number of our current team while she was with us as a postdoctoral scholar in Chemistry with the Finlayson-Pitts and Hemminger groups.  On January 15th, 2025, AirUCI hosted a public lecture given by Tracy at the Beckman Center.  This was the fourth public event that AirUCI has hosted for Tracy, who each time has shared her experiences in space over her three missions aboard the space shuttle and the International Space Station. 

And this one topped them all!  Nearly 500 people lined up outside the Beckman Center to hear her speak.  The auditorium seats 240 and was quickly filled, as were two large overflow rooms which live streamed her talk from the auditorium.  When there was no more room for attendees, people gathered in the Beckman’s Atrium and the entry lobby where over 50 people stood and sat on the floor to watch the live stream on a small monitor or simply to hear the audio of her lecture.

After becoming an astronaut, Tracy has maintained contact with our team and has been most generous in agreeing to so many public appearances with us.  These appearances also entail meetings during the day with faculty and other researchers, and her schedule is always quite full during these visits.

For example, on the afternoon before her lecture, several students and postdocs from the AirUCI team gave presentations to Tracy on the current research in their groups.  There was a later meeting with her AirUCI friends where she learned even more about their ongoing studies in air quality and climate change, which is of great interest to her.  In fact, during her public lecture, Tracy referred to these discussions with our team while speaking about the importance of research into climate change, pollution, and the environment in general. 

Just prior to her lecture, we organized a reception where Tracy was able to meet with a number of AirUCI faculty, campus officials, and specially invited guests.  We received numerous enthusiastic comments from these VIPs about their opportunity to meet her. 

This event has gone a long way toward highlighting AirUCI to a wide audience.  We continue to receive comments of sincere appreciation for hosting this lecture, with some remarking about how scientific research and space exploration are great examples of their tax dollars at work!

Tracy’s husband, Dr. George Dyson—a retired Navy pilot, Navy Reserve Chaplain, and Southwest Airlines pilot—played important roles in the evening’s events as well.  George interfaced most graciously with the attendees, speaking about his support for his astronaut wife.   Although not with NASA himself, George is an outstanding representative for them as well.

At the end of the event, nearly 250 public attendees lined up for photos with Tracy, including many children who were thrilled to meet an astronaut in person.  Thanks to the efforts of our AirUCI team and their families—all volunteers—this line moved smoothly and efficiently with everyone able to have their photos taken with Tracy.

In fact, more than 17 of our AirUCI team and their family members volunteered to help facilitate the event, and their assistance made every line move smoothly and efficiently.  They handled close to 500 attendees in an efficient and polite manner that reflected well on us and on UCI overall, doing everything from crowd management, seating assistance, escorting invited guests to the reception, distributing programs to all attendees, organizing the large public line-up for photos with Tracy after her talk, and more.  All this effort on the part of our team and their families did a great deal to ensure the resounding success of Tracy’s event.

Our recording of the entire event is now available for viewing on YouTube.  Thanks to Tatiana Overly, Director of Communications and External Relations in UCI's School of Physical Sciences, for her assistance in posting this video.

We cannot thank Tracy enough for her generous support of AirUCI in her public events with us.  We thank her also for being so effective a champion of space exploration and of scientific research in general.  We hope to welcome her back to AirUCI before too long!