Denise C. Nuttall Stephens | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1973or1974(age 49–50) [1] |
| Occupation | associate professor |
| Children | 7 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Brigham Young University (BS) New Mexico State University (PhD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Astronomy |
| Main interests | Brown dwarfs |
Denise C. Nuttall Stephens is an associate professor of astronomy in the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Brigham Young University. [2]
Stephens graduated from Brigham Young University in 1996 as an undergraduate student with a degree in physics. She received her Master's and Ph.D. in Astronomy from New Mexico State University. She completed her a postgraduate program at the Space Telescope Science Institute and at Johns Hopkins University. She joined the faculty of BYU in 2007. [3] She studies the atmosphere of brown dwarfs,looks for and classifies binary systems,studies TNOs,and uses telescopes both on ground and in space to collect infrared data. [2]
In 2017,she and a team of undergraduates at BYU published their discovery of a new planet called KELT-16b,which was made as part of the KELT project. [4] Her team also co-discovered the hottest known exoplanet KELT-9b the same year. [5]
Stephens is a coordinator of the BYU Astronomical Society. [6] She also runs an annual public event called Astrofest which introduces physics and astronomy to kids in a fun way. [7] She is the team captain of an on-campus flag football team which is the only women's intramural faculty team at BYU. [1]
Denise Stephens is married and is a mother to seven children. [1]
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