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 calibration 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
Positions/Employment
Research Astrophysicist
NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center
2020 - Present
NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow
Universities Space Research Association - Goddard Space Flight Center
2018 - 2020
Graduate Student Researcher
Space Sciences Laboratory - University of California, Berkeley
2012 - 2018
Education
Ph.D. - Physics, University of California, Berkeley (2018)
M.Sc. - Physics, University of Toronto (2012)
B.Sc. - Physics Honors, Simon Fraser University (2011)
Professional Service
AAS HEAD Executive Committee Member (2024—present)
NASA Balloon Program Independent Review Team (2023—present)
COSI Science Steering Committee (2023—present)
NASA GSFC Science Director’s Committee Member (2021—2024)
US Snowmass CF7 Gamma-ray Experiments White Paper Captain (2021—2022)
Organizer of MeV Gamma-ray Science splinter session at AAS Winter Meeting (2019, 2020, 2021)
NASA Scientific Balloon Roadmap Program Analysis Group Executive Committee (2018 – 2020)
Reviewer for Space Science Reviews, Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments and Systems
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
2024. "Performance evaluation of the high-voltage CMOS active pixel sensor AstroPix for gamma-ray space telescopes." Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment 1068 169762 [10.1016/j.nima.2024.169762] [Journal Article/Letter]
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
2024. "The double-sided silicon strip detector tracker onboard the ComPair balloon flight." Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray 297 [10.1117/12.3018896] [Proceedings]
2024. "ComPair-2: a next-generation medium-energy gamma-ray telescope prototype." Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray [10.1117/12.3017619] [Proceedings]
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]
2022. "AstroPix: novel monolithic active pixel silicon sensors for future gamma-ray telescopes." Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2022: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray [10.1117/12.2630405] [Proceedings]