Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) is NASA's multi-mission center of science, data and operations expertise for long-wavelength astrophysics. IPAC carries out challenging data processing tasks essential to the science return from large astronomy programs such as all-sky surveys and NASA flight missions. I work for two teams at IPAC: the IPAC Communications and Education Team (ICE) and the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI).
IPAC Communications and Education
I work as the Education and Outreach Scientist on the ICE team. ICE is a full-service EPO/PA group that specializes in Education and Public Outreach, Public Affairs, Graphic Design, Media Relations, Science Visualization, Video, Animations and Web Site Development.
Our team produces a number of award-winning podcast series, such as IRrelevant Astronomy and Ask an Astronomer. You can watch all of our podcasts at www.spitzer.caltech.edu/video-audio/.
My role on the team is to cover the education side of things. I do the science verification of our educational products, as well as education verification of our science products, speak at and run public events, give talks and demos in schools, answer questions that come into the helpdesk, and co-write and edit scripts for some of our podcasts. I also coordinate between our team and the science teams on media releases.
NASA Exoplanet Science Institute
I am also a member of the Science Affairs team at NExScI. NExScI is the science operations and analysis center for NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program. We provide tools and archives for the exoplanet community, administer the Sagan program of fellowships and workshops, and support the Keck Interferometer and administration of the NASA Keck telescope time.
My role on the team is to run the science side of the Sagan Summer Workshops, which are workshops designed for training the incoming members of the Exoplanet Community. Each year we cover a different subtopic of the field, to help grad students, young postdocs and newcomers to the field of exoplanet research to get up to speed and start doing their own cutting-edge research.
On top of that, we also run the Management Operations Working Group meetings for the Keck and IRTF telescopes, run at least 2 conferences per year, and administer the Keck PI Data Awards and the Keck Time Allocation committee.