Amy Mainzer

Amy Mainzer
Born 1974 (age 4041)
Nationality American
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Alma mater Stanford University
California Institute of Technology
University of California
Known for Astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy

Amy Mainzer (born 1974) is an American astronomer, specializing in astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy. She is the Deputy Project Scientist for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Principal Investigator for the NEOWISE project to study minor planets[1] and the proposed Near Earth Object Camera space telescope mission. She has appeared a number of times in the History Channel series The Universe.[2] She also appears in the documentary featurette "Stellar Cartography: On Earth" included on the Star Trek Generations home video release (March 2010).

Life

Mainzer received a B.Sc. in Physics from Stanford University with honors (1996), and holds an M.Sc. in Astronomy from California Institute of Technology (2000) and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles (2003)

Her research interests include asteroids, brown dwarfs, planetary atmospheres, debris disks, star formation and the design and construction of new ground- and space-based instrumentation.[3]

Asteroid (234750) Amymainzer was named after her.

References

  1. "NASA's NEOWISE Completes Scan for Asteroids and Comets – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory". jpl.nasa.gov. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
  2. "Amy Mainzer". CBS Entertainment. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  3. "Science – Evolution of Galaxies: People: Amy Mainzer". science.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 11 March 2011.

External links

Jasmin Ionescu. "A Voyage of Discovery with Amy Mainzer". JPL Education Office. dcshehn. "JPL Profile". JPL Education Office.