Amber Nicole Straughn (born 1979) is an American astrophysicist at

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 ...

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 ...

where she serves as the deputy project scientist for the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

, responsible for science communications. Her research focuses on interacting and star-forming

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

in the context of galaxy assembly. She is also the associate director of the Astrophysics Science Division.

Early life and education

Straughn was raised on a cattle and pig farm in

Bee Branch, Arkansas Bee Branch is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Van Buren County, Arkansas, United States. It was first listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 293. More than 70% of the local population consist ...

, and also grew watermelons. The dark skies inspired her early interest in astronomy, stargazing on a blanket by her farmhouse. When the

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

was launched in 1990 while she was in elementary school, she saw videos of the event and said "I want to be part of that, part of that science story." A counselor in her high school helped her to get summer internships to help pave the way to a career in the sciences. After graduating from South Side High School in 1998, she was the first person in her family to go to college. Straughn attended the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States. It is the Flagship campus, flagship campus of the University of Arkan ...

Fayetteville Fayetteville may refer to: *Fayetteville, Alabama *Fayetteville, Arkansas ** The Fayetteville Formation *Fayetteville, Georgia *Fayetteville, Illinois *Fayetteville, Indiana *Fayetteville, Washington County, Indiana *Fayetteville, Missouri *Fayette ...

, which provided her with a merit scholarship. There, she worked with a student team to write a successful proposal for research on NASA's

microgravity Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

KC-135 The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an American military aerial refueling tanker aircraft that was developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, alongside the Boeing 707 airliner. It has a narrower fuselage and is shorter than the 707. Boeing gave ...

plane known as the "vomit comet" in 2001. After earning her

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

degree in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

in 2002, Straughn attended

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

where she completed the

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

degree. In 2005 she was awarded the 3-year NASA Harriett Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship for underrepresented groups in STEM. Straughn earned 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 ...

in physics in 2008. Her Ph.D. thesis, ''Tracing galaxy assembly: A study of merging and emission-line galaxies,'' is on the topic of

galaxy evolution In cosmology, the study of galaxy formation and evolution is concerned with the processes that formed a heterogeneous universe from a homogeneous beginning, the formation of the first galaxies, the way galaxies change over time, and the process ...

using

data.

Scientific career

Straughn is a member of the

project science team at Goddard, where she started as a postdoc in 2008. She became the deputy project scientist for JWST Science Communications in 2011. As an early user of the newly installed

Wide Field Camera 3 The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is the Hubble Space Telescope's last and most technologically advanced instrument to take images in the visible spectrum. It was installed as a replacement for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 during the first ...

on the Hubble Space Telescope, Straughn demonstrated its capability to measure the distance to and properties of very faint galaxies in the early universe. She is a co-investigator of the CANDELS team, conducting the largest galaxy survey project on Hubble. Straughn is known as a passionate science communicator and has spoken at schools, astronomy clubs, museums, and research societies locally in the DC area and nationwide. The University of Arkansas awarded her an Honors Alumna status in 2017 for her scientific and outreach work. She also interacts frequently with the media, having done numerous live television interviews, media features for NASA, and has appeared on TEDx, PBS NOVA, National Geographic, DiscoveryGo, Netflix, History Channel, Science Channel and on the ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallons "Hubble Gotcha" segment. Straughn became a pilot in 2013, flying a

Cessna Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufactu ...

182 Year 182 ( CLXXXII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Sura and Rufus (or, less frequently, year 935 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 182 for this year ...

. She is an active yoga practitioner and teaches weekly yoga classes.

Awards and honors

*2004, Gerald A. Soffen Memorial Fund for the Advancement of Space Science Education awardee *2005, NASA Harriet G. Jenkins Predoctoral Fellowship *2007, AAS Chambliss Student Achievement Award *2016, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Straughn, Amber Arizona State University alumni University of Arkansas alumni NASA astrophysicists Living people American science communicators Physicists from Arkansas People from Van Buren County, Arkansas American women astrophysicists American astrophysicists 1979 births