For more than 4 months now, Astronomy editors and art staff have been working on a new department for the magazine. During our annual editorial retreat back in October, we discussed a way to showcase more astronomy professionals in the magazine. We knew from reading feedback on our Forums that readers are interested in learning more about both professional and amateur astronomers, so we created “Astro Confidential.”
In a two-page spread each month starting with our April issue (on newsstands now), we will share mini Q&As with different people involved in astronomy. We’ll go beyond the most recent headlines to see what their days are like, find out how they became interested in astronomy and why they love their current jobs, learn about their goals for the future, and more. The goal: match faces and personalities with the people you read about elsewhere in Astronomy.
April’s issue starts off with:
- Lisa Frattare, an astronomical image processor at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
- David Helfand, chair of the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University and co-director of the Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory;
- Ann Hornschemeier, astronomer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Laboratory for X-Ray Astrophysics and an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University;
- Matt Mountain, director of STScI
- Lisa Randall, professor of Physics at Harvard University and author of Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions (ECCO Press, 2005).
And don’t worry, we’re not cutting anyone’s thoughts short. Magazine subscribers can find a Web extra each month that includes any information from our featured professionals that we couldn’t fit in the magazine.
We’re excited for readers to check out this first installment, and we hope you’ll read future ones as well (preview for May: an exoplanet hunter, an artist, a professor from across the pond, and more). Have anyone you want us to include in an upcoming issue? Just let us know in the comments below or by e-mailng me.