🚀 THOUGHT LEADERS
RICHA SIROHI M. Eng ’19 and ’25: From Cornell to the Cosmos

Cornell Engineering Alumna + Ezra Cornell Scholar · Former NASA JPL Engineer · Lead Spacecraft Systems Engineer, BAE Systems
a talk for all ages on “Understanding Our Home Through a Cosmic Lens”

📅 Saturday, October 10, 2026
⏰ 1:00–3:00 p.m.
📍 University of Colorado at Denver Campus
🎟️ $20 per person (general admission); $15 (guests 17 and under)
Light refreshments + snacks included
*A portion of every ticket will benefit Lincoln Hills Cares.
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☀️ WHAT CAN THE UNIVERSE TEACH US ABOUT OUR OWN EXTRAORDINARY PLANET?

Join the Cornell Club of Colorado + Lincoln Hills Cares for a very special edition of THOGHT LEADERS featuring magnetic Cornell aerospace engineer Richa Sirohi and an inspiring, highly visual journey from the Sun → to space → back home to Earth. Richa is not only a brilliant scientist, but also has a gift for simplifying complex ideas and making them relevant and engaging for all ages!

Designed for curious minds from age 5 to PhD, “Understanding Our Home Through a Cosmic Lens,” will explore the remarkable connections between the Sun, space weather, our planet and our everyday lives, trace Richa’s journey in aerospace and shed light on careers in STEM.

How can an eruption on the Sun affect technology on Earth? What creates the aurora? How do we build machines sophisticated enough to survive launch and operate in space? And how can looking back at Earth from above help us understand—and better protect—the only home we have?

🌎 Sometimes the best way to understand Earth is to look at it from somewhere else.
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🔭 FROM CORNELL → NASA → SPACECRAFT ENGINEERING

Richa will take us inside a world most of us never get to see: how spacecraft are actually imagined, engineered, built and sent into space!
Through stories from her own remarkable journey—from Cornell Engineering and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to her work today at BAE Systems—Richa will reveal the ingenuity, curiosity, collaboration and problem-solving behind exploring our universe.

🚀 WE’LL EXPLORE:
☀️ Our dynamic Sun — and the surprising ways solar activity and space weather can influence life and technology on Earth
🛰️ How we build spacecraft — transforming ambitious scientific questions into machines capable of operating in one of the most extreme environments imaginable
🌎 Earth from a new perspective — how observing our planet from space helps us understand its atmosphere, ecosystems, climate and interconnected systems
💡 The power of curiosity — how asking extraordinary questions can lead to careers, discoveries and possibilities we never imagined
🎤 Ask Richa — an interactive audience Q&A for scientists and space enthusiasts of every age
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🌲 CORNELL + LINCOLN HILLS CARES
Connecting young minds with science, nature and possibility.

This special THOUGHT LEADERS program brings Cornell alumni, families and friends together with young people and participants from Lincoln Hills Cares, an extraordinary Colorado nonprofit co-founded by visionary Cornellian and Denver native Robert F. Smith ’85. Lincoln Hills Cares is helping develop the next generation of young leaders through outdoor and environmental education, cultural history exploration and workforce advancement—creating opportunities for young people to experience nature, explore environmental STEM, discover new career pathways and see possibilities for their own futures. That makes this partnership especially meaningful. Richa’s work asks us to look outward toward the universe to better understand our planet. Lincoln Hills Cares invites young people to get outside, experience that planet firsthand and imagine their role in its future. Together, they make for one extraordinary afternoon of science, exploration, stewardship and possibility.
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✨ CURIOUS MINDS WELCOME.
From age 5 to PhD—and everyone in between.
Bring your kids.
Bring your questions.
Bring your curiosity.