WISE Director Davis helps nominate winning student for UM Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor (GSI) award

Named one of Astronomy Magazine's top 10 stars of astronomy, Professor Lisa Kewley of the University of Hawaii accepted WISE's offer to host a visit to the UM campus as part of the College of Literature Sciences and the Arts' 'The Universe: Yours to Discover" theme semester.

Kewley received her BSc(Hons) in astrophysics at Adelaide University where she studied cosmic rays and gamma-ray bursts. She completed her PhD at Mount Stromlo Observatory, Australian National University, on the relationship between star formation and actively feeding black holes in luminous merging galaxies. After her PhD, Kewley received a CfA fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics where she worked on star formation and chemical evolution in nearby galaxies. She moved to Hawaii in 2004 to begin a Hubble fellowship where she is extending her work to galaxies at higher redshifts.

While on campus Lisa was kept busy giving an astronomy departmental talk, meeting with UM astronomy faculty, post docs, graduate and undergraduate students, all organized by UM Professor of Astronomy Sally Oey.

In addtion, Dr. Kewley was a featured guest at a WISE sponsored dinner with undergraduate and graduate students in the sciences. Also invited to the dinner were Kewley's travelling companions, her spouse and her 5 month-old son.

One concern express by students during the visit was the lack of female faculty members with children. They appreciated seeing her as an active faculty member, researcher and parent.

Kewley was appreciative of the WISE sponsored trip for both the contacts she made and for learning about the WISE program. "We need one of these at the University of Hawaii," she commented.

April 2009 eNews

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