Romanian Explorers Celebrating Earth Day

ARCS in partnership with Romanians of DC invite you on Saturday, April 24 at 1 pm EST to a discussion celebrating Earth Day with our special guests Luminița Cuna (writer, explorer) and Ioana Cozmuța (researcher at NASA). Find out more about their pioneer spirit, amazing careers and fascination for uncharted territories on Earth and out of space.

Register in advance for this meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZctdeChrTgtEtEpUc2JXcH-MJi1XaFr2Thm After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Luminița Cuna is a Cluj-Napoca native and Brooklyn resident who has been traveling extensively to the Amazon region and has been living and working with indigenous communities in the Amazon since 2006. She has been an ally to indigenous peoples for more than 15 years, supporting their efforts to uphold their human rights and to protect their territory. Luminița is the founder of Maloca, a grassroots support organization that works with indigenous communities living in the Amazon basin. She has been fundraising and campaigning on various indigenous issues, helping indigenous communities get solar energy, incorporate technology in their territory defense and become aware of their rights and how to use them in protecting their forest. Luminița wanted to bring awareness on the rich cultures of the Amazon indigenous peoples, as well as to unveil the fascinating world of the rainforest; this is how her book “Barefoot in the Amazon” came to life. Luminița also co-produced the documentary Ome: Tales from a Vanishing Homeland, winner of the 2017 Queens International Film Festival for best cinematography. The documentary brings forward the fight of an Amazonian community to protect their home, one of the most biodiverse area in the world. When she is not trekking the Amazon, Luminița is an IT project manager.

Dr. Ioana Cozmuța is the founder and CEO of G-space Inc (https://www.zerogspace.com), a women-owned B-corporations and a reflection of Ioana’s passions: to discover and build opportunities for socio-economic benefit at the confluence of Space and Earth and to mentor and inspire the new generation towards a more prosperous future for humanity. Ioana holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and she is an alumnus of Caltech and Stanford University. During her career at NASA and in the industry spanning two decades, Ioana has built a legacy on transforming the status quo, opening new avenues for innovation, collaboration, space technology commercialization and public-private partnerships. The current fiber optics manufacturing in space has its origin in a paper published in 2017. Dr. Cozmuța is a TedEx Future Spoiler (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlsGhC3G1d8), a keynote/speaker and lecturer. She has co/authored over 200 scientific articles, technical reports and newspaper interviews; webinars and podcasts.