Keivan Guadalupe Stassun (born July 1972) is an American physicist and astronomer in the field of

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...

s. He is a physics

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private university, private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provide ...

and an adjunct professor at

Fisk University Fisk University is a Private university, private Historically black colleges and universities, historically black Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus i ...

, institutions at which he oversees and co-directs the Fisk-Vanderbilt Masters-to-Ph.D Bridge Program. Stassun has been an activist promoting the integration of underrepresented groups in the fields of STEM, especially math and science through research, outreach and teaching.

Family life and education

Stassun was born to a Mexican mother and an Iranian father who left when he was an infant. He lived in Venice, CA until age seven, when his mother and stepfather married and moved to the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

where he grew up. He was identified as "high IQ" and was recommended for a gifted magnet program: Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies, where he went for both middle and high school. During his high school years he participated in a number of activities in the fine arts, sports, speech and debate, and newspapers and yearbook, all while graduating second in his class. He first attended the

Naval Academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. List of naval academies See also

* Military academy {{Authority control Naval academies, Naval lists ...

for a year, undergoing basic training on

Treasure Island ''Treasure Island'' (originally titled ''The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys''Hammond, J. R. 1984. "Treasure Island." In ''A Robert Louis Stevenson Companion'', Palgrave Macmillan Literary Companions. London: Palgrave Macmillan. .) is an adventure a ...

, but gave it up. He then attended

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

as a Chancellor Scholar where he studied astronomy under the tutelage of

Gibor Basri Gibor Basri (b. May 3, 1951) is an American astrophysicist, now Professor Emeritus in the Astronomy department at U.C. Berkeley. His research focused on stellar magnetic activity, star formation, and low mass stars and brown dwarfs. He was als ...

. After Berkeley, he moved on to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

to do his graduate work under the guidance of Bob Mathieu. At Wisconsin, his ideas about the importance of combining scholarly practices in research, teaching, and outreach began to crystallize. In addition to carrying out his thesis research, he also became active in math/science education for minorities in the local schools, and he developed an astronomy outreach program ( Scopes for Schools) which provides teachers with resources and training for teaching astronomy. Currently, Stassun serves as chair in the exoplanet science team of the Vanderbilt Initiative in Data-intensive Astrophysics (VIDA), which he helped found. The VIDA is a big data-enabling pilot-program from major astronomical surveys. He currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and 2 sons

Awards and recognition

* 2004 –

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 ...

CAREER Award * 2006 – Cottrell Scholar Award from

Research Corporation Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has id ...

*2007 – Ford Foundation Fellow *2014 –

Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM) is a Presidential award established by the United States White House in 1995. The program is administered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) on ...

(PAESMEM) *2015 – TREE (Transformational Research and Excellence in Education) Award from

*2016 –

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 ...

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

* 2018 –

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

(AAAS) Mentor Award * 2019 – Cottrell Plus Impact Award from

* 2020 - Elected a Legacy Fellow of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

in 2020. * 2024 -

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

* 2025 - Recipient of the

National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...

Selected publications

* Stassun, Keivan Guadalupe (2000–07). "The Connection Between Rotation, Circumstellar Disks, and Accretion Among Low-Mass Pre-Main-Sequence Stars" * Stassun, Keivan G.; Mathieu, Robert (2002–08). "A Spectroscopic and Photometric Study of Newly Discovered Pre-Main- Sequence Eclipsing Binaries in Orion"

References

External links

Website

American Physical Society

AAAS Mentorship Award
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stassun, Keivan 1972 births Living people University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Vanderbilt University faculty 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Astronomical Society University of California, Berkeley alumni 21st-century American astronomers Fisk University faculty Physicists from California MacArthur Fellows American people of Iranian descent American academics of Mexican descent