Erika Tobiason Hamden is an American astrophysicist and associate professor at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

and

Steward Observatory Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were ...

. Her research focuses on developing

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

(UV) detector technology, ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy (UV/VIS) instrumentation and

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

, and galaxy evolution. She served as the project scientist and project manager of a UV multi-object spectrograph, FIREBall-2, that is designed to observe the circumgalactic medium (CGM). She is a 2019 TED fellow.

Early life and education

Hamden was born in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...

. Hamden studied astrophysics at

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

and graduated in 2006. Hamden worked at the Harvard Center for Astrophysics, completing a senior thesis under Andrew Szentgyorgyi. After graduating, she completed a diploma at Le Cordon Bleu in London, before working as a

chef A chef is a professional Cook (profession), cook and tradesperson who is proficient in all aspects of outline of food preparation, food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term (), the di ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. She joined

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

for her doctoral studies in 2007, earning a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

supervised by in 2014. She worked on the diffuse galactic far UV background using archival GALEX data, far UV bright galactic clouds, UV detector development, and ultraviolet instrumentation. She held a NASA Earth and Space Science fellowship from 2011 to 2014.

Career and research

Hamden joined

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

as a postdoctoral researcher, working with Christopher Martin. Here she developed an ultraviolet telescope for a high-altitude balloon, the "Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon" (FIREBall-2). FIREBall-2 will observe circumgalactic media (CGM) emission in the

. She appeared on the podcast

365 Days of Astronomy ''365 Days of Astronomy'' is an educational podcast, inspired by the International Year of Astronomy, published daily beginning in 2009. It is produced as a collaboration between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Astrosphere New Medi ...

. She was a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Astronomy and Astrophysics

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

in 2014. The fellowship allowed her to develop instrumentation to study galaxies in the Keck Cosmic Web Imager redshift range. In 2016 she was the first woman to be awarded a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Nancy Roman technology fellowship for her work in detectors. She was made a

Robert Andrews Millikan Robert Andrews Millikan ( ; March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953) was an American physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1923 "for his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect". Millikan gradua ...

fellow in 2017. Hamden joined the faculty at the

and

in 2018. Here she is building a UV detector lab and continuing work on FIREBall-2 and as the project scientist for the Keck Cosmic Reionization Mapper. She is interested in silicon detector technologies and Lyman-alpha emission from the circumgalactic media. She has worked on

anti-reflective coating An antireflective, antiglare or anti-reflection (AR) coating is a type of optical coating applied to the surface of lens (optics), lenses, other optical elements, and photovoltaic cells to reduce reflection (physics), reflection. In typical ima ...

s for delta-doped CCDs, helping to improve their efficiency in the ultraviolet. FIREBall-2 was designed to test this new technology. The electron multiplying charge-coupled devices (EMCCDs) can suffer from clock-induced charge and spurious signals and require carefully designed shaped pixel clocks to minimize noise. She has worked as US lead on FIREBall-2 from 2014 to its launch on September 22, 2018. Hamden was present during integration of FIREBall-2 at

Fort Sumner Fort Sumner was a Fortification, military fort in New Mexico Territory charged with the internment of Navajo and Mescalero, Mescalero Apache populations from 1863 to 1868 at nearby Bosque Redondo. History On October 31, 1862, Congress of the ...

in 2018, when a

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

landed in the telescope. Hamden is a member of the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

Cosmic Origins Science Working Group. She is one of 20 people selected as TED fellow in 2019. Her TED Talk was selected by TED as a highlight of their April 2019 conference, and covered by ''Wired'' magazine.

Awards and honors

Her awards and honors include *

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers The Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) is the highest honor bestowed by the United States federal government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers. T ...

* TED fellow in 2019. *

Nancy Roman Technology Fellowship *

(NSF) Astronomy and Astrophysics postdoctoral Fellow *

Fellow in Experimental Physics * NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamden, Erika American astrophysicists American women astrophysicists University of Arizona faculty Harvard College alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People from Montclair, New Jersey American women academics 21st-century American women scientists Recipients of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers 21st-century American physicists Physicists from New Jersey 21st-century American astronomers