Meet the Team: Summer Student Ishan Mishra
Today we have the next post in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series. This time we’re featuring Ishan Mishra who will be working on Comet Hunters this summer as part of the ASIAA Summer Student Program.
What is your current position and where/institution?
I recently graduated (May 2016) from the Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati, India, with a major in Electronics and Communications Engineering.
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
I’m from India and grew up partly in the east Indian state of Jharkhand and partly in the west Indian state of Gujarat.
What interested you in the ASIAA summer student program?
During my first visit to Taiwan in 2015 (as a summer student at NCU), I attended an astrobiology seminar at ASIAA. I loved the institute and its people and hence applied to its summer student program.
Having volunteered for some citizen science projects in the past, I feel the opportunity to know and be part of the behind-the-scenes work for Comet Hunters is just too cool!
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
My primary field of interest is astrobiology and one of the greatest mysteries in the field is the origin of water on Earth. Main Belt Comets promise to be interesting tools to solve the problem.
Name one hobby of yours?
Listening to and playing music (on my guitar) from the Classic Rock/Rock n Roll era.
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
Modern Family
What is your favorite movie?
The Man From Earth
What is the latest book you have read?
What are five of the top ten most played songs on your iTunes/spotify/etc playlist?
Comfortably Numb (live at Pulse) – Pink Floyd
Spirit of the Radio – Rush
While My Guitar Gently Weeps – The Beatles
Deform to Form a Star – Steven Wilson
Baba O’ Riley – The Who
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I share my birthday with Galileo.
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Meet the Team: Shiang-Yu Wang
Today we have the next post in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series. This time we’re featuring Shiang-Yu Wang from the science team.
Name: Shiang-Yu Wang
What is your current position and where/institution?
Research fellow at Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
I was born and grew up in Taipei, Taiwan.
What is your role in Comet Hunters?
My role is to provide some ideas of how to make the project better and to find the budget to support the activities
Beyond Comet Hunters, what else do you work on?
I work on large astronomical instruments and telescope systems.
In 3 lines explain your PhD thesis?
It is for a new kind of IR detectors. With artificial solid state quantum structure, you can detect the low energy IR photons. My thesis is focused on the new structures to improve the performance.
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
It is a fairly new discovery and it might tell us more about the water on Earth.
Name one hobby of yours?
Birdwatching
What is the latest book you have read?
Le Capital au XXI siecle (Chinese version)
Who is your favorite singer/band/musical artist?
Genesis
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I am pretty lazy.
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Red wine
Meet the Team: Meg Schwamb
Today we have the next post in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series. This time we’re featuring Meg Schwamb from the science team.
Photo credit: Sundar Srinivasan
Name: Meg Schwamb
What is your current position and where/institution?
Postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at Academia Sinica
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
Long Island, New York on the Northeast cost of the United States
What is your role in Comet Hunters?
I’m a member of the science team and serve as project scientist. I help organize the science team efforts and the day-to-day logistics of the project.
Beyond Comet Hunters, what else do you work on?
I work on studying small bodies in the outer Solar System in the Kuiper belt and beyond. I’m part of the ColOSSOS (Colours of the Outer Solar System Origins Survey) project to study the surfaces of ~13o Kuiper belt objects. I’m also currently involved in the Planet Four and Planet Four: Terrains Zooniverse projects to study the seasonal processes on Mars’ south pole.
In 3 lines explain your PhD thesis?
Studying the icy bodies orbiting past Neptune, in the region known as the Kuiper belt and beyond. I used a wide-field survey to look for more objects like dwarf planet-sized Sedna, whose highly distant and eccentric orbit cannot be explained by the current architecture of the Solar System. I was able to place constraints on the size and properties of these populations.
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
This is one of the newest reservoirs of water in the Solar System. I’m interested to learn how this population may have delivered water to the Earth, and what main belt comets can tell us about the Solar System’s birth and evolution.
Name one hobby of yours?
Baking
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
House of Cards (US version)
What is your favorite movie?
Batman Returns
What is the latest book you have read?
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel
Who is your favorite singer/band/musical artist?
Nine Inch Nails/How to Destroy Angels
What are five of the top ten most played songs on your iTunes/spotify/etc playlist?
Warriors by Imagine Dragons
Radioactive by Imagine Dragons
Of the Night by Bastille
Breathe by Alexi Murdoch
Silhouettes by Of Monsters and Men
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I saw Star Trek: Nemesis in the movie theater four times
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Champagne/sparkling wine
Meet the Team: David Shonfield
Today we have the next post in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series. This time we’re featuring David Shonfield (@Avanti), one of our Talk moderators.
Image credit: David Shonfield
Name
David Shonfield
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
London
What drew you to Comet Hunters?
Probably the Rosetta mission. Seeing a comet from close up was a revelation. Followed by the New Horizons mission, which has provided so many surprises and shown how supposedly dead worlds can be alive.
What is your role as a Comet Hunters Talk moderator?
I’m yet to find out! But I’m hoping to help build a group that works well collectively and makes an intelligent contribution to identifying these elusive objects.
Name one hobby of yours?
Gardening
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
Wolf Hall (I don’t watch much TV!)
What is your favorite movie?
Equal favourites: Trading Places and Solaris (the Tarkovsky one rather than the remake).
What is the latest book you have read?
Fighters in the Shadows, A new history of the French Resistance, by Robert Gildea
Who is your favorite singer/band/musical artist?
Miles Davis
What are five of the top ten most played songs on your iTunes/spotify/etc playlist?
Caruso/Lucio Dalla
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing/ Ella Fitzgerald
Haja o que houver/ Madredeus
Senza giacca e cravatta/Nino D’Angelo
Because the night/Patti Smith
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I have a weakness for cartoons, in particular Pinky and the Brain: Pinky is my alter ego.
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Negroni Sbagliato
Meet the Team: Henry Hsieh
Today we have the next post in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series. This time we’re focusing on principal investigator (PI) of Comet Hunters, Henry Hsieh.
Name: Henry Hsieh
What is your current position and where/institution?
Research Scientist with the Planetary Science Institute, living in Honolulu, Hawaii
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
New Jersey, USA
What is your role in Comet Hunters?
PI
Beyond Comet Hunters, what else do you work on?
Besides Comet Hunters, I also work on other main-belt comet and disrupted asteroid research including targeted observational analysis to understand their physical properties, dynamical analyses to understand their orbital evolution, and exploring different ways to discover more.
In 3 lines explain your PhD thesis?
I did the first in-depth observational analysis of the first discovered main-belt comet, 133P/Elst-Pizarro (although the term “main-belt comet” did not yet exist at the time). I then performed a targeted observational search for more “Elst-Pizarros”, the success of which led to the recognition of main-belt comets as a new class of comets.
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
Besides being the topic of my PhD dissertation, main-belt comet research is extremely new and so has many opportunities to make new discoveries. It also has very interesting implications for understanding the formation of our solar system and maybe even the origin of water, and therefore life, on Earth itself.
Name one hobby of yours?
Free diving
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
Mr. Robot
What is your favorite movie?
Gattaca
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
I have used telescopes on every continent (including Antarctica) except for Australia.
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Guinness
Meet the Team: Kiwi Zhang
Today we have our next in our Meet the Comet Hunters Team series.
Name: Kiwi Zhang
What is your current position and where/institution?
Project Support Engineer/Scientist at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA)
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
Taipei, Taiwan
What is your role in Comet Hunters?
Develop the Subaru image analysis pipeline
Beyond Comet Hunters, what else do you work on?
Work on the Trans-Neptunian Automated Occultation Survey (TAOS) project for developing control software
In 3 lines explain your PhD thesis?
Developed an analysis pipeline to process the image data and to detect the candidate events produced by the occultation by Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs)
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
They are a mystery group in the Main Belt.
Name one hobby of yours?
Programming
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
The Wired
What is the latest book you have read?
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino
Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth
What is your favorite band/music artist?
Sodagreen/Taiwan
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Beer in general except STOUT
Meet the Comet Hunters Team: Ying-Tung (Charles) Chen
Today we have our first in the series of Meet the Comet Hunters Team posts to help you get know the people behind Comet Hunters better. Ying-Tung (Charles) Chen from the Science Team is kicking off the series.
Name: Ying-Tung (Charles) Chen
What is your current position and where/institution?
Postdoctoral researcher at Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA)
Where are you originally from/where did you grow up?
Taiwan
What is your role in Comet Hunters?
Preparing Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) image for next stage of Comet Hunters.
Beyond Comet Hunters, what else do you work on?
Outer solar system dynamic (beyond Jupiter), like Kuiper Belt objects and Centaurs
In 3 lines explain your PhD thesis?
To Search for unknown distant objects in outer solar system.
To investigate dynamic and physical properties of Kuiper Belt objects.
To understand the ice world at edge of outer solar system<
Why are you interested in main-belt comets?
Main-belt comets is an unknown/new subject in inner solar system. It is quite interesting to understand why it has a cometary activity.
Name one hobby of yours?
Rock Climbing
What is the most recent tv show you have watched?
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
What is your favorite movie?
Life of Pi
What is the latest book you have read?
The Demographic Cliff: How to Survive and Prosper During the Great Deflation of 2014-2019 by Harry S. Dent
Who is your favorite singer/band/musical artist?
Vienna Teng
What are five of the top ten most played songs on your iTunes/spotify/etc playlist?
地平線の向こう側へ/Misia
Dear Tokyo/SID</div>
Rat A Tat/Fall Out Boy
Bed of lies/Matchbox Twenty
千本桜/和楽器バンド
What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?
Well cooking on Taiwanese cuisine.
Favorite cocktail or beverage?
Talisker
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