NSF GRFP > Fellow Profiles > Amanda Mainzer

Amanda Mainzer, NASA Scientist

Amanda Mainzer began her academic career at Stanford University, where she earned a BS in physics. She then began graduate study at the California Institute of Technology. During this time, she was receiving financial support from an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She earned her MS in Astronomy in 2001 and then received her PhD in Astronomy from UCLA in 2003.

Dr. Mainzer is currently working at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology as a Deputy Project Scientist for WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer). The main objective of this project is to conduct an all-sky survey. Some of the goals of the survey are finding the stars that are closest to the sun and provide data for studying star formation. The current predicted launch time for WISE is mid 2009.

In addition to receiving an NSF Graduate Fellowship, she has also won a NASA Graduate Student Research Program Fellowship and the Lockheed Martin Outstanding Performance Award.

Selected works in chronological order:

• WISE Observations of Near Earth Asteroids

• Pre-launch performance testing of the Pointing Calibration & Reference Sensor for SIRTF