Space buff flirts with stardom
Bhupinder Rathore, an SFU science buff, hopes a British radio station’s producers will see stars when they review a short radio play script by Rathore and 10 protégées from Surrey’s Princess Margaret secondary school. The station, Resonance 104.4FM in London, England, is an award-winning, arts council-funded radio station. Following their recent participation in a major international space settlement competition, the radio station asked for a 10-minute play, based on their submission. Rathore coached the students and can talk about their script on Aynah, a space settlement they designed to orbit Mercury. He can also discuss how participating in the high profile International Space Settlement Competition, for the second consecutive year, has landed him other star-making opportunities. It has helped him garner a co-op job as an engineer at Icron Technologies. He and a pair of protégées have also been invited to a space-related digital conference at the U.S. Consulate General Office in Vancouver on Thurs., Nov. 29, 11 a.m.

Bhupinder Rathore, 604.347.7343, brathore@sfu.ca

Gender-persecuted refugees
SFU researchers, the Surrey Pride Society and Rainbow Refugee hope a talk they are co-hosting tonight will raise public awareness about the potentially life-threating impact on refugees of changes to Canada’s refugee claimant process. Seeking Refuge from Persecution Related to Sexuality or Gender Identity takes place at 7 p.m. at the SFU Surrey campus. The talk’s hosts, including SFU’s Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS), say changes will jeopardize the success rate of claimants fleeing sexual orientation- or gender identity-based persecution. The changes are effective Dec. 15. SFU counselling psychologist Sharalyn Jordan, one of the presenters, and Jennifer Marchbank, an SFU associate professor in the GSWS department, can expand on the issue.

Sharalyn Jordan, 778.881.2915, sjordan@sfu.ca
Jennifer Marchbank, 778.782.7607, 604.996.6195 (cell), jmarchba@sfu.ca

Reviewing Haida Gwaii shakeup
SFU earthquake expert John Clague is among many scientists descending on Haida Gwaii to study the cause and the impact of last month’s earthquake in the B.C. archipelago. Clague can talk about his research on landslides triggered by the 7.7 magnitude earthquake.

John Clague, 778.782.4924, 604.351.4750 (cell), jclague@sfu.ca