Lynn Redding Carlson
Space Telescope Science Institute
Lynn Redding Carlson was home schooled as a child and grew up going to open houses at the University of Maryland's observatory and listening to classic literature on tape. Though she didn't know him, some of her interest in space was passed down from her grandfather, who worked in communications for NASA through the Apollo missions. At age eleven, Lynn moved with her family to Slippery Rock, PA, where she attended middle school and high school. After participating in an intensive Telluride Association Summer Program about “the crisis of meaning in contemporary art, literature, and philosophy,” the notoriously impractical Lynn settled on studying both philosophy and astrophysics in college. She attended the Michigan State University, where she dabbled in Solar research for four years, spending summers at the National Solar Observatory and the High Altitude Observatory. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 2002 with one bachelor degree each in Astrophysics and Philosophy.
Lynn is currently in her fifth year of graduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University, working with researchers at STScI. Her primary research interests are currently in the field of star formation, and she is planning to write her thesis on star formation in the local group. Outside of astronomy, Lynn enjoys painting, reading, and anything Shakespeare.
Antonella Nota
Space Telescope Science Institute
Antonella Nota, is the Head of the Science Mission at STscI. She was born and raised in Venice, Italy. Her love of astronomy started very early. As a teenager, she was one of the first women to join the AAVSO in Europe, and monitored variable stars for years from the Lido in Venice. She completed her university studies at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Padua, home of Galileo. She worked at the Italian Aerospace Company LABEN where she participated in the initial design of the Beppo Sax mission, and then she moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where she spent almost two years providing scientific support for the Exosat X-ray astronomy mission.
She joined STScI in 1986, as a FOC/IDT post-doc and eventually became a member of the ESA staff in 1990. She spent ten years supporting HST instrument science operations as the Lead of the Faint Object Camera Group, the Lead of the Observatory Support Group and the the Lead of the NICMOS Group. She then became the Head of the Science Division, and she is now the Head of the Science Mission.
Her scientific interests are mainly in the field of post main sequence evolution of very massive stars, especially Luminous Blue Variables. She has studied the nebulae ejected by these stars and used the nebular properties to constrain the ejection mechanism and refine the understanding of the last evolutionary phases of these very luminous and massive objects. More recently, she has developed an interest in stellar populations in nearby galaxies, with emphasis on young stellar clusters.
Outside astronomy, Antonella has many interests, including modern art and classical music. She loves extreme sports, and still spends her vacations scubadiving in remote areas of the world, or skiing. She is married to Mark Clampin, an astronomer colleague whom she met at STScI, and has a little daughter, six years old, Simona.
Mark Clampin
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Mark Clampin is currently the James Webb Space
Telescope (JWST) Observatory Project Scientist at
the Goddard Space Flight Center. An early love of
astronomy led him to graduate study at theUniversity
of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he managed to
spend four years without playing single round of
golf. Mark spent two years at STScI as an ESA Fellow,
followed by three years at Johns Hopkins University.
In 1992, Mark joined the Institute as an Instrument
Scientist supporting the development of new instruments
for Hubble. Initially, he supported the first servicing
mission as a Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2)
Instrument Scientist, moving on to become a STIS
Instrument Scientist. In 1994 he was a member of
the science team awarded the contract to build ACS.
He played a major role as the ACS Detector Scientist,
responsible for the three ACS detector systems.
Mark became ACS Group Lead in the Hubble Division
in 1998, and served for over four years, until ACS
had successfully embarked on its first year of science
operations.
Mark¹s scientific interests are the formation
and evolution of planetary systems, stellar populations
the late stages of stellar evolution. He also develops
astronomical instrumentation, in particular space
optics, detectors and stellar coronagraphs. In the
last few years, Mark has become interested in the
problem of direct planet detection and recently
formed a science team to develop a Discovery proposal.
The Extrasolar Planetary Imaging Corongraph (EPIC)
is a 1.5 meter aperture coronagraph is designed
to survey nearby stars for the presence of Jovian
planets.
Outside of work, Mark¹s main interest has
always been scuba diving. He started diving in theU.K.
in 1974 and has dived all over the world. The culmination
of his diving career came in 1998, when he spent
two weeks diving the Bismark Sea and Dampier Straits
in Papua New Guinea. Mark is also a keen skier and
has recently started to learn to fly. He is married
to ESA Astronomer Antonella Nota at the Institute,
with whom he is trying to master the ultimate extreme
sport, parenting. They have an 5-year-old daughter,
Simona.
John S. Gallagher III
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Professor Jay Gallagher mainly grew up in the suburbs
of New York City during the peak of the space race,
when thoughts about space and astronomy were hard
to avoid. Having been interested in the stars by
his grandmother and by really seeing the sky during
a winter he spent in Manchester, Vermont, he was
primed to become seriously involved in astronomy.
He finally succumbed as an undergraduate at Princeton
University. While a graduate student at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is now the W. W.
Morgan Professor of Astronomy, Prof. Gallagher did
a Ph.D. thesis based on observations of an exploding
star obtained with the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory
A-2, the first robotic ultraviolet space astronomy
observatory. He later became interested in galaxies.
In addition to his astronomy, he enjoys being outdoors
in Wisconsin's famous "four season" climate.
Most of Prof. Gallagher's astronomical work is
based on observations made with telescopes on Earth
and in space. His research developed while he held
positions at several different places, most notably
the Universities of Minnesota and Illinois and at
the Lowell Observatory, before coming back to Madison.
Currently he is working on a variety of research
projects, including studies of the effects of violent
star formation in nearby galaxies using the Hubble
Space Telescope and the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope
on Kitt Peak. He also is involved with the Southern
African Large Telescope project that is bringing
a 10.5-meter optical telescope online in the Republic
of South Africa.
Margaret Mexner
Space Telescope Science Institute
I was born in New York and raised mostly in Rockville, MD. I have always loved math and science and began an interest in astronomy during a junior high earth sciences class. The teacher of that class was very engaging and I recall wanting to be a geologists, then a meterologist and finally an astronomer. As an undergraduate electrical engineering and mathematics student at University of Maryland, College Park, I participated in several undergraduate research programs at the Goddard Space Flight Center and University of Maryland in astronomical research, enjoying the guidance of several good mentors. I continued in a PhD program in Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley and began as an assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign after graduation. I am now an associate astronomer at STScI working on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project.
My interest in astronomy has always involved studies of gas and dust in the interstellar medium and in circumstellar environments. Stars are formed out of the gas and dust of the interstellar medium and as these stars age and die they return an enriched material back to the interstellar medium. My studies of the gas and dust at these different stages probe the physical processes that form stars and planets, that cause star death and that energize and enrich the interstellar medium. I am principal investigator of the Spitzer Survey of the Large Magellanic Cloud, Surveying the Agents of a Galaxy's Evolution (SAGE) which looks at the life cycle of matter in a galaxy using dust emission as a tracer of the matter. I am also principal investigator of the WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) that will enable the study of dusty interstellar and circumstellar environments in more distant galaxies.
Sally Oey
University of Michigan
My parents are Chinese Indonesians who moved to
the US in 1957. Since this was before the repeal
of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a special bill in
Congress was passed to permit my dad to immigrate.
He was hired as a librarian by Cornell University,
and I was born and raised in Ithaca, NY. We lived
a few miles east of town, and although our house
was in a valley, the skies were dark. And like other
astronomers who were toddlers at that time, I was
fascinated and inspired by the lunar landings and
space program. As a teen, I watched Carl Sagan on
TV... and I also had the chance to see him in person
a couple times, since he lived in my town!
Feels like I've come a long way since then. My
undergraduate degree is from Bryn Mawr College outside
Philadelphia, and I worked at the Center for Astrophysics
in Cambridge, MA for a couple years with the X-ray
group there. While I was helping to archive data
from Einstein, an early X-ray satellite, others
around me were developing the NASA Great Observatory
that was to become the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Little did I dream then, that I would someday be
a Guest Observer on Chandra myself! I went on to
do my graduate work at the University of Arizona
from 1988 to 1995 with Rob Kennicutt, a pundit on
galaxies. After postdoctoral fellowships at Cambridge
University in the UK and the Space Telescope Science
Institute in Baltimore, I was a staff astronomer
in Arizona, at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.
I am know an Assistant Professor at the University
of Michigan.
My scientific interests focus on the effects of
the hottest, most massive stars on their interstellar
environment. On small scales, these stars ionize
the surrounding gas and create spectacular and photogenic
emission nebulae. They also end their lives in powerful
supernova explosions that create shells and hot
(million-degree) gas in the interstellar medium.
And these stars, along with their supernovae, are
nuclear generators that create virtually all the
elements in the Universe apart from hydrogen and
helium. Because these stars have such a profound
effect on the gas in galaxies, they are responsible
for many of the processes that cause galaxies, and
the Universe itself, to evolve.
Anna Pasquali
Max-Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Germany
I was born in a small village close to Bologna
in Italy, and, as long as I remember, I always wanted
to be an astronomer, or, with the words of a child,
to get to know what the bright spots in the night
sky are. For this reason, I enrolled at the Astronomy
program of the University of Bologna and obtained
my master degree in 1991, defending a thesis on
the properties of Globular Clusters in the Local
Group. The year after I entered the PhD program
of the University of Firenze, at the Arcetri Observatory.
The three years of PhD were devoted to study the
latest stages of the evolution of stars and in particular
the mass loss of Planetary Nebulae and Luminous
Blue Variables. A project that involved extensive
visits to the Space Telescope Science Institute
in Baltimore, where I also spent two years of post-DOC
between 1995 and 1997. In 1997 I moved back to Europe,
to take up the position of instrument scientist
in the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility
division located at the European Southern Observatory
headquarters in Munich, Germany. In this new role,
I carried out the calibration of the spectroscopic
elements (grism and prisms) implemented in the Advanced
Camera for Surveys, now onboard HST. I currently
am at the Max-Planck Institut fuer Astronomie in
Heidelberg (Germany), working on the star-formation
activity of starburst galaxies and on the morphology
and stellar populations of elliptical galaxies.
Marco Sirianni
Space Telescope Science Institute
Marco was born and raised in Padova, Italy. His
love of astronomy started at about the age of 7
when he started playing around with a very small
(~ 1") galilean telescope.
He grew up with the classical 60mm refractor in
the backyard.
Marco received the laura degree in astronomy at
the university of Padova in 1994 when he started
his scientific collaboration with STScI. In 1998
he moved to Baltimore to start his collaboration
with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) Team
at the Johns Hopkins University.
In 1999 he obtained his PhD in space science and
technology from the Center of Studies and Activities
for Space of the University of Padova.
He was employed at JHU as post doc first and as
Associate Researach Scientist as member of the ACS
team working on the detector team and being involved
in the ground and on-orbit calibration of the instrument.
In October 2003 he started working for the European
Space Agency in the Research and Scientific Support
Department at the Space Telescope Science Institute
where he is currently an instrument scientist for
the Advanced Camera for Surveys team.
He played a major role in the photometric calibration
of ACS and he is interested in the effects of the
radiation damage in space-operated CCDs.
Marco’s research interests are in the are
of the low mass star population in young clusters
in the Magellanic Clouds, Starburst Galaxies and
Super Star Clusters.
Linda J. Smith
University College London
Unlike most of her colleagues, Linda Smith did
not develop a love of astronomy from an early age.
She was brought up in deepest Wiltshire, England
where the skies were very dark. It was not until
she had to chose a subject to study at university,
that she was hit by a metaphorical lightning bolt
one night and saw the word ``astronomy'' in bright
flashing lights. According to her parents, she sat
down at breakfast and announced that she was going
to become ''an astronomer''. This shocked her parents,
sister, dog and teachers as no one had ever heard
of anyone doing astronomy, let alone a woman. Undeterred,
she made up for lost time, and with the help of
her father, joined the British Astronomical Association,
built a telescope, and rapidly learnt about the
universe.
Linda did her first degree in astronomy and her
PhD at University College London. For her PhD, under
the supervision of Professor Sir Robert Wilson,
she studied extremely massive stars using ultraviolet
spectra from the International Ultraviolet Explorer
satellite. She then worked as a research fellow
at the Royal Greenwich Observatory where she developed
her interests in the interaction of winds from massive
stars with the interstellar medium. Linda then moved
back to UCL, and obtained an Advanced Fellowship
which she held for eight years before becoming a
member of faculty. During this time, she worked
on various research topics, including abundance
studies of distant galaxies, massive stars and winds.
At present, she is working on young compact clusters
formed in bursts of star formation, and the interaction
of their supernova-driven winds with the surrounding
interstellar medium in galaxies. Linda works mainly
with observations obtained at ultraviolet and visible
wavelengths, and has used many ground-based telescopes,
the Hubble Space Telescope, and other satellites.
Monica Tosi
Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna
I was born in Florence, Italy and raised in Rome.
When I was attending high-school I already knew
I wanted to be an astronomer, but I didn't know
exactly why ...
I got my “laurea” degree in Astronomy
in Rome and then went to Yale, with an Italian fellowship.
I chose Yale because a good friend advised me that
there I could work with "the best person to
learn how to do work in astronomy"- Beatrice
Tinsley. My boyfriend was already on the east coast,
at CFA in Cambridge, so I thought I'd better go
as soon as possible. I did; it was 1980; and thanks
to this rapid decision I had the chance of spending
one year with Beatrice, who prematurely died in
March 1981. Beatrice gave me both the cultural bases
and the technical tools to work on the chemical
evolution of galaxies, which is still one of my
major research fields. Even more importantly, perhaps,
she introduced me to the "woman's approach
to astronomy."
Back to Italy, I got a position at the Bologna
Observatory, where I'm still working now as a full
professor. From what I've seen in these twenty years,
I do think that the woman's way in astronomy is
great.
I'm still working on galaxy evolution, both from
the theoretical and the observational points of
view, interpreting observational data on star clusters
and galaxies, deriving star formation histories,
and computing chemical evolution models for galaxies
of different morphological types.
Rene A. Walterbos
New Mexico State University
I was born in the Eastern part of the Netherlands,
in a small 700-yr old town (Groenlo). My first experiences
observing meteor showers and stars and galaxies
date back to my teenage years. It didn't take me
long to conclude that studying astronomy would be
great adventure, one far removed from commerce and
politics (so I naively thought). After obtaining
the PhD in 1986 at Leiden University, where I also
obtained my undergraduate degrees, I left the flat
country for the large country, with postdocs in
Princeton and Berkeley, before settling in New Mexico.
Here, the skies are dark at night, and large in
the day time, the views extend as far as half-way
across the Netherlands. At New Mexico State University,
I was one of the first group of Space Telescope
Institute Hubble Fellows, before I joined the faculty.
After too long a stint as Department Head, I am
once again pleased to have more time for research.
My research interests include the interstellar
medium, in my case observed mostly in nearby galaxies,
massive stars and galaxy morphology and evolution.
In the vast expanse which is almost a vacuum, the
stars and planets are born, and galaxies change
over time.
My other interests in life include music, in particular
classical guitar, hiking, running, and camping with
my family. We have a teenage daughter who is half
Mexican, half Dutch and fully (Norte) American at
the same time.
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