- Alyssa A. Goodman
Alyssa A. Goodman is Professor of
Astronomy atHarvard University , a Research Associate of theSmithsonian Institution , and the Founding Director of theHarvard Initiative in Innovative Computing [http://iic.harvard.edu Initiative in Innovative Computing] ] . Goodman and her research group at theHarvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics inCambridge, Massachusetts study the dense gas between the stars. They are particularly interested in how thisinterstellar gas arranges itself into new stars. Their investigations use a variety of observational techniques covering thespectrum fromX-ray toradio .Currently, Goodman is principal investigator of the COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/COMPLETE COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions] ] , which is mapping out three very large star-forming regions in our
galaxy in their entirety. These three regions are now being observed by theSpitzer Space Telescope , under the c2d "Legacy" Program [http://peggysue.as.utexas.edu/SIRTF/ c2d 'Legacy' Program] ] . When the COMPLETE and c2d Surveys are concluded, they will represent a database more than one thousand times larger than what is available today.Fact|date=February 2007 The database is predicted to allowastrophysicists to address questions such as, "how many stars like theSun can form from a given mass of gas in theMilky Way ?".Fact|date=February 2007Goodman received her
undergraduate degree inPhysics fromMIT in 1984 and aPh.D. in Physics fromHarvard in 1989. She held aPresident's Fellowship at theUniversity of California, Berkeley from 1989 to 1992, after which she took up a post as Assistant Professor ofAstronomy atHarvard . Goodman received the 1997 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize from theAmerican Astronomical Society for her work oninterstellar matter, and she became full professor atHarvard in 1999.References
External links
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~agoodman Alyssa Goodman]
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics]
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