Kai Staats

Kai Staats is an award winning filmmaker, writer, and researcher. Kai's work in film has included wildlife conservation, human interest, science documentaries and science fiction. He has produced three NSF and university funded documentaries for LIGO, the astronomical observatory that in September 14, 2015 detected distant, merging black holes. His footage and films have aired on the National Science Foundation's educational channels, Discovery Channel, Space.com, New Scientist, and PBS member stations and have been integrated into productions by Morgan Freeman and NOVA. His films have been awarded Best Director (Song of the Stars), Best Short Documentary (I am Palestine), and 2nd Place Professional Documentary (LIGO Detection). Kai was awarded his MSc in Applied Mathematics at the University of Cape Town, his research in the application of machine learning to the mitigation of human-generated noise in radio astronomy data at the Square Kilometre Array, South Africa. He is a visiting scientist at LIGO and a professional researcher at Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration where he is leading a team in the development of a mathematical model of a scalable Mars community. Kai's work as a scientist enables him to translate complex topics to the screen such that they are appreciated and understood more fully. Kai believes a strong foundation in science education, rational thinking, and an engaged imagination is the best hope we can give to the next generation.