ASTRONOMY
Dr. Anne Kinney Lends Support to the
Award-Winning Educational Initiative
Anne Kinney,
Ph.D, a leading astrophysicist with NASA, has been selected
as a national spokesperson for Space Day 2004…Blazing
Galactic Trails. Dr. Kinney, who exemplifies the spirit of
exploration, will provide an excellent role model for the
next generation of space explorers, scientists and inventors.
The international Space Day 2004 celebration on May 6 will
culminate a year of educational activities.
As Division
Director of NASA's Astronomy and Physics Division, Dr. Kinney
is involved with finding planets beyond our solar system.
She oversees 35 space–based telescope
missions including the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray
Telescope and the most recent Space Infrared Telescope Facility
(SIRTF). Launched in August, SIRTF will be sending never before
seen infrared images back to Earth around Space Day. Dr. Kinney's
division is also laying the groundwork for a telescope powerful
enough to spot Earth-like planets around nearby stars.
“I'm thrilled to be a part of the Space Day
initiative,” said Dr. Kinney. “Space exploration
is such a terrific way to ignite kids' imagination. We must
continue to convey to students the critical role of science,
technology, engineering and mathematics in the 21st century.
I look forward to sharing the huge range of career possibilities
that are open to young people with backgrounds in these disciplines.”
Prior to
joining NASA, Dr. Kinney spent 14 years with the Space Telescope
Science Institute in Baltimore, where she was an Instrument
Scientist on one of the original instruments to fly with
the Hubble Space Telescope, the Faint Object Spectrograph.
She also worked in education and public outreach with the Hubble
Space Telescope and was involved in creating the program “Amazing
Space,” an educational Web site for children to learn
basic principles of science, mathematics and astronomy. In
addition, she was guest commentator on NASA's Space Science
Updates.
“We're very pleased that Dr. Kinney has agreed
to provide her time and experience to help inspire our next
generation of scientists, astronomers and space explorers,” said
Buzz Bartlett, Chairman of the Board for the Space Day Foundation.
The Space Day educational initiative is co-chaired
by Senator John Glenn and supported by the nonprofit Space
Day Foundation, as well as 75 Partner and Associate organizations.
NASA has been a Partner since Space Day was established in
1997. Lockheed Martin is the founding sponsor of the Space
Day Foundation that supports the Space Day educational programs.
The mission of Space Day is to use space-related
activities to inspire and prepare youth for careers in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics. Each year, millions
of students, teachers, parents and space enthusiasts participate
in Space Day educational programs and celebrations across North
America.
“As Division Director for Astronomy and Physics
I am responsible for 35 missions that extend beyond the solar
system. What's particularly exciting is our effort involved
in ‘planet finding.' We know there are 100 billion stars
in our galaxy, but we don't know how many stars have planets
around them,” explains Kinney, “The new SIRTF observatory,
launched in August 2003, provides us with infrared images that
will allow us to peer into regions of space that are hidden
from optical telescopes.”#
For more information about Space Day visit www.spaceday.org.