S. Sona Hosseini | |
---|---|
Born | Seyedeh Sona Hosseini 1982 (age 41–42) |
Alma mater | University of Isfahan University of Zanjan University of California, Davis |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Thesis | Tunable all reflective spatial heterodyne spectroscopy, a technique for high resolving power observation ol defused emission line sources (2013) |
Seyedeh Sona Hosseini (born 1982) is an Iranian-American planetary scientist and researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She develops lightweight, compact and highly sensitive spectrometers for space missions.
Hosseini grew up in Iran, and moved to San Antonio at the age of 2. [1] [2] [3] She became interested in astronomy during a school trip to Johnson Space Center at the age of 7. [4] At the age of 11 she moved back to Iran, where her parents encouraged her to explore astronomy through the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences. [1] She built her first telescope in junior high school, and started building cameras and spectrometers during college. She made astrophysical observations of dark skies in Iran using her own equipment, which formed the basis of her undergraduate research.
Hosseini studied physics at the University of Isfahan, where she was involved in building a 16-inch telescope and dome for the physics department's observatory. [5] She moved to the University of Zanjan for her graduate research, where she specialised in physics and astronomy. [5] Her graduate research involved working with New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology on astrophysical observations from candidate sites for the Iran National Observatory. She moved to the University of California, Davis as a graduate student in engineering science. Her doctorate developed tunable, all reflective spatial heterodyne spectroscopy, a spectroscopic approach that combines dispersive and interferometric techniques. [6] Her PhD included the mathematical framework and experimental protocol for constructing a spatial heterodyne spectrometer. She developed a visible spatial heterodyne spectrometer for detecting Sodium D-lines. A minor planet (28912 Sonahosseini), discovered in 2000, was named after her.
In 2015 Hosseini joined the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Here she has studied low-density gas environments (e.g. exospheres, cometary tails). At JPL she leads the development of next generation, miniaturised, high resolution spectrometers. In 2022 she was supported by the Nancy Grace Roman fellowship to work on far UV science investigations. [7]
The Herschel Space Observatory was a space observatory built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA). It was active from 2009 to 2013, and was the largest infrared telescope ever launched until the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope in 2021. Herschel carries a 3.5-metre (11.5 ft) mirror and instruments sensitive to the far infrared and submillimetre wavebands (55–672 μm). Herschel was the fourth and final cornerstone mission in the Horizon 2000 programme, following SOHO/Cluster II, XMM-Newton and Rosetta.
Hyperspectral imaging collects and processes information from across the electromagnetic spectrum. The goal of hyperspectral imaging is to obtain the spectrum for each pixel in the image of a scene, with the purpose of finding objects, identifying materials, or detecting processes. There are three general types of spectral imagers. There are push broom scanners and the related whisk broom scanners, which read images over time, band sequential scanners, which acquire images of an area at different wavelengths, and snapshot hyperspectral imagers, which uses a staring array to generate an image in an instant.
Nancy Grace Roman was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, establishing her as one of the "visionary founders of the US civilian space program".
SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) is the Dutch national institute for space research. It develops and uses technology for analysis in space, This includes astrophysical research, Earth observation, and exoplanetary research. The SRON research focuses on sensors designed to detect X-rays, infrared radiation, and visible light.
Amy Mainzer is an American astronomer, specializing in astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy. She was the deputy project scientist for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and is the principal investigator for its NEOWISE extension to study minor planets and for the future Near Earth Object Surveyor space telescope mission.
Prabhakar Misra is an American physicist, who researches and teaches at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and is currently a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Vyacheslav Gennadievich Turyshev is a Russian physicist now working in the US at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). He is known for his investigations of the Pioneer anomaly, affecting Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft, and for his attempt to recover early data of the Pioneer spacecraft to shed light on such a phenomenon.
Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is a suite of instruments on the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. The SAM instrument suite will analyze organics and gases from both atmospheric and solid samples. It was developed by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Laboratoire des Atmosphères Milieux Observations Spatiales (LATMOS) associated to the Laboratoire Inter-Universitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA), and Honeybee Robotics, along with many additional external partners.
Xuntian, also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST) is a planned Chinese space telescope currently under development.
Giovanna Tinetti is an Italian physicist based in London. She is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at University College London, who researches galactic planetary science, exoplanets and atmospheric science.
Lew Allen Award for Excellence is a medal of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Established in 1986 as the Director’s Research Achievement Award; it was then renamed in honor of JPL's Director Lew Allen when he retired in 1990. This award recognizes significant accomplishments or leadership early in an individual's professional career at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Carrie Anderson is an American planetary scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
Michael Morris is an American biochemist, oceanographer and businessman, who has designed, developed and marketed new applications of optical sensing technology and spectroscopy. He has founded several companies including pHish Doctor, Ocean Optics Inc. (OOI), and SpectrEcology.
Erika Tobiason Hamden is an American astrophysicist and associate professor at the University of Arizona and Steward Observatory. Her research focuses on developing ultraviolet (UV) detector technology, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV/VIS) instrumentation and spectroscopy, and galaxy evolution. She served as the project scientist and project manager of a UV multi-object spectrograph, FIREBall-2, that is designed to observe the circumgalactic medium (CGM). She is a 2019 TED fellow.
Therese "Terry" Kucera is an astrophysicist in NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Solar Physics Laboratory. Her research interests center on the solar atmosphere, especially solar prominences and prominence cavities. She currently serves as Project Scientist for NASA's STEREO project.
Anne L. Kinney is an American space scientist and educator. Kinney is currently the Deputy Center Director at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Previously, she held positions as the head of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Chief Scientist of the W.M. Keck Observatory, Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Director of the Origins Program at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Director of the Universe Division at NASA Headquarters. She earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in astrophysics from New York University, and has published more than 80 papers on extragalactic astronomy. She was an instrument scientist for the Faint Object Spectrograph that flew on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Kevin France is an astrophysicist and assistant professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado. His research focuses on exoplanets and their host stars, protoplanetary disks, and the development of instrumentation for space-borne astronomy missions.
Shouleh Nikzad is an Iranian-American electronic engineer and research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She leads the Advanced Detector Arrays, Systems, and Nanoscience Group. Her research considers ultraviolet and low-energy particle detectors, nanostructure devices and novel spectrometers. Nikzad is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Inventors and SPIE.
Makenzie Lystrup is an American planetary scientist and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of SPIE, best known as a prominent voice in civil space projects and science policy. Lystrup is the director of the Goddard Space Flight Center. She has previously served as the vice president and general manager for civil space at Ball Aerospace.