Introducing Phil Rosenfield

Phil Rosenfield is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Padova in the Department of Physics and Astronomy Galileo Galilei. He uses observations of resolved stellar populations to constrain stellar evolution models. His focus is on phases that have the greatest impact on galaxies, but that are least understood. So far, that means the luminous core helium fusing phase (contained within the blue and red supergiant phases), asymptotic giant branch stars, and stars that have failed to become AGB stars.

Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Phil earned a PhD from the University of Washington, a Master’s from San Diego State University, and a Bachelor’s from Boston University.

Besides research, Phil creates and engages in educational programs that teach science while combating the exclusion of people based on race, economic status, and disability. While at the University of Washington, he was part of the Pre-Major in Astronomy Program staff, co-created a program to train PhD students to communicate their research to the public, helped create affordable planetariums, and co-created a planetarium outreach program for Seattle Middle and High Schools.

When he tweets, it’s from @philrosenfield

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Introducing Jorge Zuluaga

Jorge is an Associate Professor at the University of Antioquia (Medellín – Colombia) and is the head of the undergraduate program there. His current field of research is planetary physics connected to habitability issues. Right now he is writting a couple of papers on habitability around binaries and the magnetic environment of potentially habitable exomoons. He is married and has two sons (22, 20) and a daughter (7). He is passionate about popularization of science, in particular physics and astronomy, computer programming (where he spends 99% of my time), runs a blog in Spanish (http://trinoceronte.wordpress.com) and his mom named an asteroid (347940) Jorgezuluaga after him or the other way around if you prefer.

Introducing Nicholas Heavens

Nicholas (“Nick”) G. Heavens is Research Assistant Professor of Planetary Science at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia. He grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then received a B.S. in Geophysical Sciences from the University of Chicago. He then went on to graduate school at Caltech in Pasadena, California, where he received an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Planetary Science . After receiving his Ph.D., he moved to Ithaca, New York to be a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. In 2012, he moved to Hampton University.

Nick works at the intersection of planetary science, meteorology, and historical geology. He studies the role of aerosols and clouds in the weather and climate of planets ranging in size from Mars to Jupiter. He also helps reconstruct past aerosol activity from Earth’s geological record. Most of all, he wants to be able to forecast Martian dust storms. He is on the board of STEPPE, an organization that promotes study of the Earth’s ancient sedimentary crust. He gratefully acknowledges funding from NSF, JPL, and NASA. You can follow him on Twitter as @WeatherOnMars.   

Introducing Jeyhan Kartaltepe

Jeyhan Kartaltepe is a Hubble Fellow at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. She grew up in San Antonio, Texas and then moved to Hamilton, New York where she received her BA in Astronomy-Physics. She then went on to graduate school at the University of Hawaii-Manoa in Honolulu, Hawaii. After receiving her PhD, she moved to Tucson, Arizona. Jeyhan studies extragalactic astrophysics and her primary scientific interests are in the role that galaxy mergers play in galaxy evolution, star formation, and the feeding of black holes and how this role has changed over cosmic time. She is an active member of several collaborations, including CANDELS, COSMOS, and GOODS-Herschel. She is actively involved in public outreach and scientific communication and writes and manages the public blog for the CANDELS survey. You can follow her on Twitter as @jeyhan.