Kristine Spekkens

Kristine Spekkens is a Canadian astronomer. She is a professor at Queen's University, and the Canadian Science Director for the Square Kilometre Array. Early life Spekkens was born in Hamilton, Ontario and grew up in Burlington, Ontario, spending most of her summers in a small cottage community in Chelsea, Québec. She attended École primaire St-Phillippe and École secondaire Georges-P.-Vanier, and received her B.Sc. in Physics from Queen's University in 2000 and her PhD in astronomy from Cornell University in 2005.

An athlete growing up, Spekkens represented Canada at netball at the 1998 Commonwealth Games and at the 1999 World Netball Championships. She was also active in university athletics as a member of the Queen's Golden Gaels women's volleyball team from 1996 to 2000 and the Cornell University Wild Roses women's ultimate club from 2000-2005. In 2008, she became an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Space Science at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC), where she was promoted to the rank of professor in 2020. In 2024, Spekkens became a professor in the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy at Queen's University, and sits on its executive committee.

Spekkens is the Canadian Science Director of the SKA, and in that role was a member of the Board of Directors of the SKA Organisation from 2019-2021, and is currently the Canadian member and Vice-Chair of the SKA Science and Engineering Advisory Committee. She has also held different positions within the Canadian astronomical community, including chairship of the Canadian Time Allocation Committee from 2014-2015, membership on the CASCA Board of Directors from 2016-2019, and chairship of the CASCA Equity and Inclusivity Committee (EIC). Spekkens is currently a member of the CASCA Nominating Committee.