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Posted on January 25th in REACH Blog

Get To Know Your PTK Catalyst Speakers

After two years of virtual conventions, PTK Catalyst is back in person! This time, we’re packing up and taking our annual convention to the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center in Denver, Colorado from April 7-9.

Hallmark awards ceremony, transfer & career fairs, International Officer election…PTK Catalyst will be bigger and better than EVER. Before we start getting our suitcases ready, let’s get to know this year’s guest speakers – we have a feeling you’ll like them.

B.J. Novak, actor, producer, writer and comedian.

B.J. Novak

Writer, actor, comedian, producer…B.J. is no stranger to success. Best known for his role as Co-Executive Producer and star of NBC’s Emmy Award winning comedy “The Office”, Novak has written some of the show’s most memorable episodes, including “The Fire”, “Safety Training,”, “Local Ad,” and “Diversity Day”.

B.J. graduated from Harvard University with a bachelor’s in English and Spanish literature and began his television acting career on the MTV Series “Punk’d”. Since then, he has appeared in several motion pictures such as “Unaccompanied Minors”, “The Internship”, “The Smurfs” and Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”.

In 2014, Novak added book writer to his already impressive list of talents. His two books, “One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories” and “The Book With No Pictures” spent weeks in the New York Times bestselling list.

With a list of accomplishments this long, we have no doubt B.J.’s talk at Catalyst will be just like him – full of creativity.

Dr. Moogega "Moo" Cooper, trailblazing engineer.

Dr. Moo

Like PTK members everywhere, Dr. Moo is an overachiever. After graduating high school at 16, she studied physics as an undergraduate, received a master’s degree and earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at just 24 years old (!!!)

Dr. Moo’s career is just as stellar as her educational background. She currently holds the responsibility of keeping Mars safe from any of the Earth’s contaminants (a real life “Guardian of the Galaxy”!), and she is the planetary protection lead of the famed NASA 2020 Mars mission (remember NASA’s Perseverance rover landing in February 2021? That’s the one!). Her work with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is an integral part of the ongoing mission to discern whether Mars could be habitable for humans.

Dr. Moo is also a recipient of several awards, including the NASA Early Career Public Achievement Medal, the Charles Elachi Award for Exceptional Early Career Achievement, and JPL Voyager Awards for Technical Leadership.

There is no doubt Dr. Moo is a role model for women in science everywhere, and we know her talk at PTK Catalyst will help empower students to achieve their dreams – just like she did.

You can register for PTK Catalyst here. 

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