Beyond the Telescope: How Stars Shape Galaxies

Alyssa Goodman is the Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied Astronomy at Harvard University, and a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Institution. Goodman's research and teaching interests span astronomy, data visualization, prediction, and online systems for research and education. Goodman received her undergraduate degree in Physics from MIT in 1984 and a Ph.D. in Physics from Harvard in 1989. Goodman was awarded the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 1997, became full professor at Harvard in 1999, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009, and chosen as Scientist of the Year by the Harvard Foundation in 2015. Goodman has served as Chair of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and on several groups guiding data science practices, including the National Academy's Board on Research Data and Information and the IAU and AAS Working Groups on Astroinformatics and Astrostatistics.  At Harvard, Goodman served as the founding Director of Harvard’s Initiative in Innovative Computing and co-Director for Science at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and she presently serves on the Steering Committee of Harvard’s Data Science Initiative while fostering Harvard’s efforts on Data+Climate. 

Goodman's personal research presently focuses primarily on new ways to visualize and analyze the tremendous data volumes created by large and/or diverse astronomical surveys, and on improving our understanding of the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. She is the PI of the glue software effort, which creates new tools for high-dimensional data visualization across science and education.  In related work, Goodman is co-founder and President of glue solutions, inc., work at which includes the creation of the glue genes software being used in bioinformatics.  She also works closely with colleagues to expand the use of the WorldWide Telescope Universe Information System, in both research and education. Goodman leads the Prediction project at Harvard University, focused on tracing back the roots of modern computer simulation, as prediction, through history, all the way back to the sheep entrail divination practiced in Mesopotamia. 

Goodman has also been recognized for her work on communicating science, including with the Frank Drake and the Patrusky Lecture awards. 

Scott Lucchini is a theoretical astrophysicist and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He studies galaxy formation and evolution using computer simulations. These simulations run on powerful supercomputers, modeling galaxies and their interactions across cosmic time. He is particularly interested in the dynamics of the diffuse gas in and around galaxies and how it fuels their growth through star formation. He received his B.S. from the University of Rochester and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.