Inge Heyer
AUTHOR

Inge Heyer

Science & Engineering
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Inge has spent decades developing a unique expertise in astronomy communications across a variety of settings, including college classrooms, informal educational settings, professional scientific journalism, and science fiction venues. Her journey has been lively, colorful, and always fun. Inge was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. She completed her secondary education there, after which she accepted a scholarship to attend Tenri University in Tenri, Japan. Following a life-long dream she studied martial arts and the Japanese language, as well as traveled extensively in this fascinating country. After this two-year academic "detour" she decided to follow her interest in astronomy (fueled by watching way too much Star Trek in high school), and came to the US to pursue an undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts. With an BA in physics and astronomy Inge then attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she obtained a master's degree in astronomy, and pursued many years of research, which often took her to the observatories atop beautiful Mauna Kea. From 1992 to 2005 Inge was a senior data analyst at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, working on images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope. Space Telescope has a very active educational and public outreach program, in which Inge participated as a volunteer. In 2006 Inge moved back to Hawaii to lead the science outreach efforts for the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo. She visited many Big Island schools and community groups to talk about the exciting astronomy work being done on Mauna Kea. She also conducted numerous K-12 teacher science education workshops. In 2011 Inge moved back to the US mainland. She obtained her doctoral degree in Science Education with an emphasis on astronomy and physics education with the CAPER Team at the University of Wyoming in Laramie in 2012. Since August of 2012 she is a visiting assistant professor in the Physics Department of Loyola University Maryland teaching astronomy and physics. Still reading and watching way too much science fiction, Inge is very involved in Baltimore-Washington science fiction activities. She gives presentations about astronomy and space science at conventions throughout the nation and internationally. She has also done this for schools of all levels, libraries, and community groups. Watch for Inge at your local educational and fannish events. Since 2009 she serves as Deputy Press Officer for the American Astronomical Society, and since 2012 she is also a guest science blogger on StarTrek.com. And in case you were wondering how the Hubble images got into episodes of Babylon-5 and Star Trek, you're looking at the trouble-maker who instigated this...
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