Introducing Cathy Olkin

Cathy Olkin (@colkin) is a planetary scientist at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO. Her main topic of research is the outer solar system, specifically planetary atmospheres and surfaces.  She is the Deputy Project Scientist for NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt. The New Horizons mission provided the first close-up images of Pluto and its moons in 2015. It is currently en route to encounter a close classical Kuiper Belt object nicknamed Ultima Thule. She is also the Deputy Principal Investigator for NASA’s Lucy mission. The Lucy mission will be the first spacecraft to visit the Trojan asteroids. Cathy also carries out ground-based observations including stellar occultations to learn about the size and atmosphere of small worlds and is the current Chair of the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society.

In her free time, Cathy mentors FIRST robotics programs providing hands-on STEM education for students from 4^th grade to 12^th grade.

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Introducing Heidi Thiemann

Heidi Thiemann (@heidi_teaman) is a PhD student in astronomy at The Open University in Milton Keynes. Her research focuses on the creation of catalogue of rotatationally modulated stars with an X-ray counterpart (aka stars with star spots) in the SuperWASP All Sky Survey and the XMM-Newton catalogue. Through machine learning, she will use such stars to study the relationship between the rotation period and X-ray activity of stars, which may be able to tell us more about exoplanetary atmospheres and habitability.

Before her PhD, Heidi did an MPhys in Physics with Space Science and Technology at the University of Leicester, and blames a family friend for getting her interested in astronomy at the age of 11.

Outside of research, she co-runs a space-themed careers website for young people (@spacecareersuk), and is a senior mentor at Space School UK. To escape from astronomy, Heidi spends her time running, baking, attempting to learn Japanese, and wishing she could spend her entire PhD stipend on learning to fly.

Introducing Mia de los Reyes

Mia de los Reyes (@MiaDoesAstro) just finished her first year of the PhD program in astronomy at Caltech! Mia’s research mostly focuses on nearby galaxies—how they form stars, and the chemical compositions of those stars. She’s currently working on measuring manganese in dwarf galaxies near the Milky Way, which can tell us about the physics of some of the supernovae that exploded in these galaxies. Before escaping to sunny California, she did her undergrad in physics and math at North Carolina State University and spent a year doing an MPhil degree at the University of Cambridge.

Mia is also passionate about science-related things other than research, including: equity and inclusion in science, science policy, and science outreach. As part of her unending campaign to get people to care about galaxies, she writes for Astrobites (@astrobites). Perhaps even more importantly, Mia also cares about rock climbing, literally anything related to Tolkien, and finding and consuming free food.

Introducing Teddy Kareta

Theodore (“Teddy”) Kareta (@teddykareta) is a 1st year graduate student at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Teddy studies the evolution of small bodies (e.g. comets, asteroids) with telescopic and spacecraft data, such as from the NASA IRTF, the ESA’s Rosetta mission, and (in a few months) NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission. Specifically, he is interested in studying the surfaces of small bodies to understand something about their history – and how they will continue to change into the future. Before moving to the desert of southern Arizona, he completed a BS in Physics and Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Outside of work, Teddy enjoys biking, outreach, and watching bad movies with his friends.