Céline d’Orgeville: The 2021 SPIE Diversity Outreach Award

Céline d'Orgeville is a professor at the Australian National University (ANU) Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics (RSAA) and a leading expert in laser guide star adaptive optics (LGSAO). She also proactively organizes and leads a range of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), mentoring, and cultural awareness sessions at ANU and across the globe, as well as heading key EDI activities on behalf of SPIE. In 2016, she proposed and led the organization and implementation of a gender equity panel at the SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation Symposium in Edinburgh, "Effective Ways to Increase Gender Diversity in the Adaptive Optics Community." It was the first such panel to be scheduled as part of SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation. At 2018 SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation in Austin, D'Orgeville was the keynote speaker at the SPIE Women in Optics Luncheon.

D'Orgeville is a committed organizer and speaker across a range of internal, external, and public outreach activities that enhance the profile of diversity in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). An active participant and leader within ANU's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA) program, she is also a member of the Astronomical Society of Australia's (ASA) Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity in Astronomy chapter steering committee, as well as that of ASA's Women in Astronomy (WIA) chapter. For the latter, she has organized and conducted workshops such as the intriguingly titled "We Are All Made of Stars: Establishing Equity and Diversity in Australian Astronomy." In 2014, her paper with fellow authors François Rigaut, Sarah Maddison, Elena Masciadri, "Gender Equity Issues in Astronomy: Facts, Fiction, and What the Adaptive Optics Community Can Do to Close the Gap," was presented as part of the Adaptive Optics Systems conference at SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation. That same year, she represented the ANU RSAA Access and Equity Committee in receiving a Bronze Pleiades Award on its behalf.

"Céline d'Orgeville's extensive and passionate participation in diversity, inclusion, and equity activities in Australia and elsewhere in the world, including noted SPIE activities, complements her technical achievements in the world of adaptive optics perfectly," notes former SPIE President Jim Oschmann. "I have had the privilege of working directly with Celine early in her career by hiring her to be the Gemini Observatory's first Adaptive Optics Laser Systems Engineer in 1999. Her career trajectory continues to be highlighted with perpetual activities dedicated to diversity and inclusion, as well as critical contributions to the advancement of astronomical-optical technologies."

Meet the other 2021 SPIE Society Award winners.

Read more about Céline d'Orgeville and the 2021 SPIE Diversity Outreach Award.