Dr. Carolyn Kierans is a NASA Research Astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses on deciphering the source of Galactic positrons, gamma-ray line astronomy, and the design and development of gamma-ray imaging telescopes. Dr. Kierans has experience developing instrument simulations, integration and testing balloon payloads, leading extensive detector calibrations efforts, and analyzing Compton telescope science data. Most notable is her work with the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) Small Explorer mission. Dr. Kierans is the Data Pipeline Scientist for COSI and the Instrument Scientist of the AMEGO-X MIDEX mission concept. She is committed to science outreach and the mentorship of young women interested in STEM.
Carolyn Ann Kierans
(Research AST, Fields and Particles)
| Email: | carolyn.a.kierans@nasa.gov |
| Phone: | 301.286.7628 |
| Org Code: | 661 |
| Address: |
NASA/GSFC Mail Code 660 Greenbelt, MD 20771 |
| Employer: |
Missions & Projects
Brief Bio
Education
Ph.D. - Physics, University of California, Berkeley (2018)
M.Sc. - Physics, University of Toronto (2012)
B.Sc. - Physics Honors, Simon Fraser University (2011)
Awards
NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship (2018 – 2020)
Soroptomist International Founders Regional Fellowship (2017)
NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship (2014 – 2016)
UC Berkeley Physics Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (2014)
NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Honorable Mention (2013)
Mary H. Beatty Fellowship (2012)
University of Toronto Outstanding Teaching Assistant (2012)
NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship (2011)
Selected Publications
Refereed
2023. "Probing the Galactic Diffuse Continuum Emission with COSI." The Astrophysical Journal [10.3847/1538-4357/ad04df] [Journal Article/Letter]
2022. "All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory eXplorer mission concept." Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems 8 (04): [10.1117/1.jatis.8.4.044003] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Imaging the 511 keV Positron Annihilation Sky with COSI." The Astrophysical Journal 897 (1): 45 [10.3847/1538-4357/ab9607] [Journal Article/Letter]
2020. "Detection of the 511 keV Galactic Positron Annihilation Line with COSI." The Astrophysical Journal 895 (1): 44 [10.3847/1538-4357/ab89a9] [Journal Article/Letter]
2019. "Benchmarking simulations of the Compton Spectrometer and Imager with calibrations." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 946 162643 [10.1016/j.nima.2019.162643] [Journal Article/Letter]
Non-Refereed
2023. "The Compton Spectrometer and Imager." arXiv e-prints arXiv:2308.12362 [10.48550/arXiv.2308.12362] [Journal Article/Letter]
2023. "The cosipy library: COSI's high-level analysis software." arXiv e-prints arXiv:2308.11436 [10.48550/arXiv.2308.11436] [Journal Article/Letter]