Dr Michele Bannister is a Royal Society Te Apārangi Rutherford Discovery Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the University of Canterbury. Her work focusses on the exploration and observation of small worlds both interstellar and in our Solar System, with experience in wide-field surveys of the sky with observatories in Australia and Hawaii. Her contributions to these collaborative efforts were recognised in 2020 by the Royal Astronomical Society’s early-career Winton Award in Geophysics, and by COSPAR’s Zel’dovich Medal for Scientific Commission B (Solar System). She also has ongoing interests in space sustainability and the protection of our night skies.