Carol Christian

Last updated
Dr Carol Christian
Born (1950-12-28) December 28, 1950 (age 71)
Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Boston University
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
Institutions Space Telescope Science Institute
Thesis Investigations of distant field stars and clusters in the galactic anticenter (1979)
Doctoral advisor Kenneth Janes
Website www.stsci.edu/~carolc/

Carol Ann Christian (born 28 December 1950) is an American astronomer and science communicator, who works for the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI; the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope) as a scientist on the institute's outreach program.

Christian was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and studied astronomy and physics at Boston University, from which she graduated with a PhD in 1979 with a thesis on Investigations of distant field stars and clusters in the galactic anticenter. [1] She then worked as an astronomer for University of California, Berkeley. [2] In 1992, Christian and her colleagues decided to establish Eureka Scientific as a conduit for grant applications of non-tenure-track astronomers after UC Berkeley did not sponsor her NASA grant proposal due to the lack of any tenure-track faculty position. [3]

In August 1995, Christian was selected as the first head of STScI's new Office of Public Outreach after a national search. [4] She has continued to act as an outreach scientist for the institute as a media spokesperson, educator and author. From 2003 to 2006, she worked as a scientific policy advisor for the State Department. In 2010, she co-authored A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy with Pierre-Yves Bely and Jean-René Roy. [5]

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References

  1. "Investigations of distant field stars and clusters in the galactic anticenter". Boston University Libraries. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  2. "Fall 2007 Colloquium Series". IS&T Colloquium Series. NASA. Archived from the original on 20 December 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.
  3. Moffat, Anne S. (1994). "Grant Limits Irk Young Scientists". Science . 265 (5180): 1916. Bibcode:1994Sci...265.1916M. doi:10.1126/science.265.5180.1916.
  4. Madsen, Claus (2003). Astronomy Communication, edited by André Heck. Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands. ISBN   9401708010.
  5. "A Question & Answer Guide To Astronomy". Sky at Night Magazine. BBC. Archived from the original on 23 April 2016. Retrieved 4 April 2016.