Introducing Jennifer Grier

Hello Astrofolks! – I’m Dr. Jennifer Grier, a Senior Scientist and Education/Communications Specialist at the Planetary Science Institute (HQ Tucson, AZ).  My formal education is in the sciences, with a B.S. in Astronomy and a Ph.D. in Planetary Sciences, but I also have 25 years of experience working in science education and outreach.  Some science stuff I’ve done: determined the relative ages of lunar rayed craters through optical maturity of ejecta, dated channels on Mars with crater statistics, found the ages of thermal impact events on asteroids by isotopic examination of meteorites, and estimated the time of formation of the Gardnos impact structure on Earth.  Some of my specific education work has included:  partnering with school systems to develop astronomy curricula, working with science museums to verify exhibit content, professional development workshops for teachers and scientists in education and outreach, and also teaching online/university/community college classes.  My current interests include inclusion and equity in STEM careers, the ethics of space exploration, and mental health/disability issues in the sciences.  If not doing those things then I’m doing creative writing, such as poetry, essays, fiction, articles and more – my works in progress include a collection of creepy childhood horror poems and a space opera novel trilogy.  And that book of essays about the alchemy of science and writing …

You can find my musings and other info in various places like:

@grierja

jagrier.com

Medium.com, @jenniferagrier

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Introducing Cesare Grava

I am a Research Scientist at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. I got both my master’s degree and my PhD in Astronomy at the University of Padua, Italy, where Galileo discovered the Jovian moons and ushered the modern era of astronomy, with a thesis on (among other objects)… Io, one of the Galilean moons. I study the exospheres of airless bodies in the Solar System: the Moon, Io, Mercury… you name it. I combine Monte Carlo modeling with data analysis (spectroscopy), with data taken both from the ground and from space. I am deputy project scientist of LAMP, UV spectrograph on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and I am on the team of Strofio, a mass spectrometer that is currently en route to Mercury on BepiColombo. You can find me on twitter at @cesaregrava

Besides astronomy (especially planetary science), my passions are (in no particular order): movies (including some blockbusters), geography, traveling, hiking, Queen, and photography.

 

Introducing Paul Byrne

Paul Byrne (@ThePlanetaryGuy) is Assistant Professor of Planetary Science at North Carolina State University. He graduated with a Ph.D. in planetary geology from Trinity College Dublin in 2010 and participated in the MESSENGER mission as a postdoctoral fellow from 2011 to 2015 at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Through a combination of remotely sensed data, physical and numerical modeling, and fieldwork at analog sites, his research focuses on the links between surface and interior processes on rocky and icy bodies in this solar System and beyond.

Introducing Tim Holt

Tim Holt (@timholtastro )is an Australian PhD candidate at the Centre for Astrophysics, University of Southern Queensland. The commute is a bit far though, as he currently has an office at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, CO, USA. He is in his second year of a PhD working on the Taxonomy and Dynamics of small Solar system bodies, with a primary focus on the Jovian Trojan Asteroids. There are two aspects to this work, using n-body simulations to look at the dynamics of families, and borrowing a technique from biology, cladistics for the taxonomy.

In a previous life, Tim spent his undergraduate at the University of Queensland digging up Dinosaurs. There were some diversions in retail, and a stint as a high school science teacher, before eventually settling in Astronomy with Swinburne Astronomy Online.

Besides science, Tim enjoys Sci-fi in it’s many forms, especially Internet Spaceships (Eve Online), books, IT stuff, board games and traveling.

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.

Introducing Helen Maynard-Casely

Helen Maynard-Casely is a Planetary Scientist based at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) where she uses the neutrons and synchrotron x-rays to investigate the materials that make up our solar system. She has a PhD in high-pressure physics from the University of Edinburgh and has been lucky enough to have collected data in facilities all over the world, blowing up a few diamonds along the way. Currently she’s trying to characterise all the ‘minerals’ that would form on Europa and Titan. Always keen to tell anyone who’ll listen about planetary science, she tweets @Helen_E_MC.