Public Outreach

Public outreach is crucial to realize the broader impacts of research. I have long been invested in scientific outreach, and have participated in countless events targeting all ages and backgrounds in the local communities I've been a part of throughout my academic career (see my CV for an exhaustive list).

Giving an Astro on Tap talk on exoplanets.

More recently, I've been particularly excited about Astronomy on Tap, giving two talks to help launch a new Chapter in Bloomington, Indiana: one on NASA's DART mission and the other on the realism of exoplanets as they are portrayed in the media. In 2022, I also created a Python workshop series (dubbed "PyIU") that recently expanded to accomodate IU students from all disciplines, and I am currently working with local organizations to bring programming and astronomy education to the greater sourthern Indiana community and youth (see below for more details).

Volunteering at IU for the 2024 total solar eclipse.
Solar eclipse viewing on IU's campus during the 2024 total eclipse (4+ minutes of totality!)

PyIU: A Workshop Series on Python Essentials

Fall 2022-Present

PyIU official logo.

In fall of 2022, I organized the first-ever Python Crash Course session for astronomy undergraduates at Indiana University (IU). This single event blossomed into the recurring PyIU Python workshop series, which serves to spark interest in STEM and provide students with the programming skills necessary to begin and ultimately succeed in scientific research. PyIU consists of two in-person Python sessions, which are free and offered once each every semester. The first is a lecture-style Python Crash Course designed to cover the fundamentals of Python and programming, including variables, lists, logic, loops, functions, and plotting. The second session, usually held later in the semester, is an Advanced Python Workshop that covers more powerful Python tools, tricks, packages, and practical applications in research (past topics include Data Analysis with numpy & pandas, Data Fitting, Statistics, Advanced Plotting, and much more). Both sessions are entirely led by IU Astronomy graduate students and postdocs.

Lecturing during the fall 2024 Crash Course.

Since 2022, many original resources and code demos have been produced through PyIU, which is why we have transitioned to making all materials available in a public GitHub repository, which is accessible here: github.com/BrandonRadzom/pyiu. We were also recently awarded funding from NASA's Indiana Space Grant program (for FY2026, PIs: Brandon Radzom & Samir Salim) to support PyIU's expansion to high school students from rural communities throughout Sout-Central Indiana.

Media:

Teaching

I have extensive teaching experience in Astronomy, serving as Associate Instructor for courses across all levels (100-level to advanced undergraduate level) at IU, guest lecturer for 100-level and graduate coureses, and Instructor of Record for several sessions of a 100-level Solar System course. Please see CV for my teaching experience.