Member Spotlight – Aaron Berhane

Aaron Berhane is a first-year nursing student at the University of Alberta, with two years of honours physiology under his belt. Since joining in Fall 2022, Aaron has been an active and enthusiastic member of AlbertaSat and is currently serving as the Educational Outreach Coordinator. Aaron initially pursued sciences with a strong passion for medicine and the human body–something he describes as “more complex than anything engineers could build.” During a cold day, Aaron found an AlbertaSat flyer while walking through the Education Building and ultimately joined the club. Upon joining, he found a welcoming environment and a passionate community where he decided to stay.

As the Educational Outreach Coordinator, Aaron facilitates communication between AlbertaSat and external groups like the Alberta Airshow, K-Days, and the Telus World of Science. His role is vital in promoting the club’s activities and engaging with the community. An initial challenge for Aaron that was daunting was learning the several acronyms and navigating the steep learning curve of AlbertaSat; however, by continuing to ask questions and seeking to learn more and receive help from fellow members, he was able to adapt and begin to thrive in the environment quickly. After graduation, Aaron hopes to work in a hospital and possibly pursue graduate studies focusing on physiology and biochemistry in space environments. He credits AlbertaSat with honing his teamwork and communication skills, which are essential to succeed in any large, multidisciplinary team.

Outside of his academic and AlbertaSat commitments, Aaron enjoys gaming, reading, playing the saxophone, and electric bass guitar. He also enjoys knitting, and baking. Aaron is also a volleyball, tennis, and swimming enthusiast. Aaron’s favourite space-related movies include Hidden Figures, Interstellar, and Space Jam, and his most loved space book is Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil deGrasse Tyson. Aaron is a big proponent of scientific research and reads scientific papers in his spare time and during his studies. One of his most-liked is a case study on the reduced immune cell count among astronauts that went to space. Aaron is also very ambitious! If given the opportunity, Aaron would love to work on the Gateway mission, ultimately getting a space station on the moon. Aaron credits Carl Sagan for his love of science and space. Aaron thinks that Carl Sagan’s ability to romanticize the concept of space is profound and motivational, referring specifically to his quote “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.”