Featured Interview: Virgiliu Pop
Over the past few years, Romania has become one of the most booming areas on Earth for hosting Yuri’s Night parties. This year alone, Romania will be hosting at least 13 YN events, more than Russia, China, Japan, and Australia combined! (If you’re reading this from one of those countries, though, there’s still plenty of time to register your event.) Much of this growth is due to the efforts of Virgiliu Pop, a former member of the Space Generation Advisory Council and graduate of the International Space University who’s put a great amount of effort into working with Romanian educators to celebrate Yuri’s Night. We managed to catch him recently for a quick interview:
Q: How are you getting so many groups in Romania to organize their own Yuri’s Night events?
Virgiliu: “I am extremely fortunate to work with the most enthusiastic teachers in the whole solar system – the Romanian teachers – and with equally enthusiastic amateur astronomers. The merit for having so many Yuri’s Night events pertains to them. Ever since I started to work at the Romanian Space Agency (ROSA) in the space education and outreach field, I aimed to create a network of educators interested in promoting space, and ROSA is well aware of the tremendous opportunity represented by events such as Yuri’s Night and the World Space Week in promoting space with the public. I also give the organizers due credit – by publishing their reports online, on a dedicated blog – http://noaptealuiyuri.blogspot.com.”
Q: How did you first get involved in Yuri’s Night?
Virgiliu: “I’ve known Loretta and George ever since 1999 or 2000, and I knew of their dream of creating a global space party ever since I met them. My involvement in Yuri’s Night became stronger in 2007, when I started working at the Romanian Space Agency and I organized a Yuri’s Night party myself, at a night club. It was amazing to see young people dancing with images from Yuri’s flight in the background. In that year I started to coordinate Yuri’s Night nationally, and the event reached escape velocity.”
Q: What’s your occupation outside of Yuri’s Night?
Virgiliu: “My professional life is an ongoing Yuri’s Night: I am fortunate enough to work in the space field, as a researcher at the Romanian Space Agency. My main area of expertise is the international law of outer space – I authored two books and several articles on this subject – but I am also interested in the societal implications of space exploration. I also coordinate educational activities at the Romanian Space Agency – such as the World Space Week and Yuri’s Night – these being amazing opportunities of communicating space with the public.”
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to say to the Yuri’s Night community as a whole?
Virgiliu: “I’ll just reiterate Yuri Gagarin’s words: Poehaly – let’s go!”
You can take a look at all the fantastic parties in Romania this year, as well as the other 158 (and counting) registered events, at our party list page.
