Three astronomers join Carnegie Science Observatories staff

Pasadena, CA— Three new astronomers are joining the Carnegie Science Observatories— Jessica Spake and Peter Senchyna as Staff Scientists and Shreyas Vissapragada as the George Ellery Hale Distinguished Scholar. Together these three early career researchers represent a broad scope of astrophysical expertise ranging from exoplanets to distant stars and galaxies.

“I am thrilled to welcome these accomplished early career scientists into their new roles,” said Observatories Director John Mulchaey, who is also the Deputy for Science for the entire institution. “The Carnegie model empowers visionary investigators to follow their curiosity where it leads, and I am eager to see Peter, Jessica, and Shreyas spread their scientific wings as part of our community.”

Senchyna moves into a Staff Scientist role after four years at the Observatories as both a NASA Hubble Fellow and Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellow. His research focuses on improving our understanding of massive short-lived, metal-poor stars, which are rare in the local universe, but dominate the most distant galaxies in the cosmos.

Spake arrives at the Observatories from neighboring Caltech, where she is a NASA Sagan Fellow and was previously a  Heising-Simons 51 Pegasi b Fellow in planetary astronomy.  Her work centers on characterizing the atmospheres of giant, gaseous exoplanets passing in front of their stars. In 2018, she made the first successful observation of helium in a planet outside of our Solar System and was  the first to detect the signatures of atmospheric escape in exoplanets using this new technique.

Vissapragada joins Carnegie Science from Harvard University, where he is also a 51 Pegasi b Fellow. He specializes in studying the evolution of exoplanets with a particular focus on constraining their atmospheric outflows and orbital dynamics.

“The opportunity to lead this search—identifying the next generation of scientific leaders for the Observatories—was an honor,” said Staff Scientist Gwen Rudie, who directed the search. “We are grateful to all of the impressive candidates who applied and are excited to welcome these three gifted and community-minded scientists to our campus.”