Carol Ann Christian (born 28 December 1950) is an American astronomer and

science communicator Science communication is the practice of informing, educating, raising awareness of science-related topics, and increasing the sense of wonder about scientific discoveries and arguments. Science communicators and audiences are ambiguously def ...

, who works for the

Space Telescope Science Institute The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for th ...

(STScI; the science operations center for the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

) as a scientist on the institute's outreach program. Christian was born in

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, Ohio, and studied astronomy and physics at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, from which she graduated with a PhD in 1979 with a thesis on ''Investigations of distant field stars and clusters in the galactic anticenter''. She then worked as an astronomer for

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. In

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, Christian and her colleagues decided to establish Eureka Scientific as a conduit for

grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, C ...

applications of non-tenure-track

astronomers An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

after

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

did not sponsor her

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

grant proposal due to the lack of any tenure-track faculty position. In August 1995, Christian was selected as the first head of STScI's new Office of Public Outreach after a national search. She has continued to act as an outreach scientist for the institute as a media spokesperson, educator and author. From 2003 to 2006, she worked as a scientific policy advisor for the

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...

. In 2010, she co-authored ''

A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy ''A Question and Answer Guide to Astronomy'' is a book about astronomy and cosmology, and is intended for a general audience. The book was written by Pierre-Yves Bely, Carol Christian, and Jean-Rene Roy, and published in English by Cambridge U ...

'' with Pierre-Yves Bely and Jean-René Roy.

References

External links

Web Home for Dr. Carol ChristianTEDx Chester River: The Scale of Our Understanding
1950 births Living people American women astronomers Science communicators Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni {{US-astronomer-stub