Erin Macdonald

Erin Macdonald (PhD, Astrophysics) is an internationally recognized space science expert, writer, speaker, and consultant. Her academic research background is in gravitational waves and general relativity. She hails from Fort Collins, CO and did her undergraduate degrees in Physics with Astrophysics and Mathematics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received her PhD in Astrophysics at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, doing research into gravitational waves as a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. After leaving research in 2014, she continued to teach at local community colleges and pursued informal education at museums and popular science fiction conventions. Life took her to Los Angeles where she began working as a science consultant for the entertainment industry. In 2019 she was hired as the official science consultant for the ever-expanding Star Trek Universe. She discovered a skill and passion for writing as well as consulting. In 2019 she wrote and narrated an Audible Original series produced by The Great Courses on "The Science of Sci-Fi" which reached the Audible Non-Fiction Top 10 bestseller list in March 2020.