Carol CHRISTIAN

Dr. Carol Christian is the Vice Chair of Communications for the IAF SEOC technical committee and is also a member of ITACCUS and the Space Astronomy Technical Committee. She is an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD. Her position as the Hubble Space Telescope Outreach Project Scientist is to ensure that accurate scientific information is distributed through STScI's products for the media, educators and the general public. Her current responsibilities specifically involve serving on the STScI Executive News Team primarily for HST news releases, oversight of the HST mission website, and other interaction with scientists through professional meetings, social media, documentation and direct communication. Recently she was asked to serve as the scientist responsible for science community engagement for the Roman Space Telescope (to launch in 2026). Her research is the study of star clusters. This science is particularly relevant to her collaboration on a nation-wide program to bring astronomical data (largely Hubble) into STEM summer camps and classroom activities for students with Blindness and Visual Impairment (BV/I). In particular, she has invented and teamed on a number of education and outreach programs and currently is a collaborator on 3D Astronomy, a project bringing Hubble data and other information to any individual with BV/I through the use of 3D prints. For the students, 3D Astronomy contributes to stimulating student interest in STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Technology) and career opportunities in STEM fields. She has held a few different positions at STScI both scientific/technical and outreach-related including serving as Guest Observer and Archive Manager for NASA’s Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer mission and a partner in creating its EPO program in the 1990s. At STScI, Dr. Christian established the Office of Public Outreach programs for Education and Public Outreach based on Hubble in 1995. She later was contract scientist for STScI technical support of the NASA Kepler and TESS missions, and served as a Science and Technology Policy Advisor at the US Department of State for 3 years, promoting pervasive use of Geographic Information Systems and satellite remote sensing data to Department bureaus and posts. She received her PhD in Astrophysics from Boston University.

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