Unlocking the Secrets of the Universe

Join us on Wednesday, April 21st for a scientist talk with astrophysicist Jackie Faherty.

Jackie Faherty is a senior scientist and senior education manager at the American Museum of Natural History. She likes to say that her job description is "unlocking the secrets of the universe." In this presentation, Faherty will discuss the road that brought her to this career and how you might inspire your students to follow along a similar path. She will describe her unique research group, Brown Dwarfs in New York City (BDNYC), which uses a mentoring strategy for a group of 12 researchers working at the forefront of low mass star, brown dwarf, and giant exoplanet characterization studies. In this presentation, you will learn about the differences between stars and planets, the objects that exist between those two classes, and why Faherty prefers to use the term “world.”

This is a free online event for 6–12 teachers. 1 hour of CTLE credit available. 

Jackie Faherty is a permanent scientific staff member jointly in the department of Astrophysics and the Department of Education at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Faherty co-runs a dynamic research group at AMNH entitled Brown Dwarfs in New York City (BDNYC) along with leading scientists Dr. Kelle Cruz of CUNY Hunter College and Dr. Emily Rice of CUNY Macaulay Honors College. Her team has won multiple grants from NASA, NSF, and the Heising Simons Foundation to support projects focused on characterizing planet-like objects.

She has also co-founded the popular citizen science project entitled Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 which invites the general public to help scan the solar neighborhood for previously missed cold worlds.

Aside from a love of scientific research, Faherty is a passionate educator. Her unique position at the American Museum of Natural History allows her to pursue scientific research at the forefront of exoplanet characterization studies while mentoring and advising education programs for students and the general public alike. Through this work, Faherty strives to create more opportunities for underrepresented minorities to enter STEM fields.