Alumni News

Meet the Woman Who Makes the James Webb Space Telescope Work

Jane Rigby, who graduated in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in astronomy and astrophysics and in physics, is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center who serves as the agency’s operations project scientist for the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the largest and most powerful off-world observatory yet built by humankind. “Give me a telescope, and I can come up with something good to do with it,” she said. Read the full article.

Canada’s NIRISS on Webb Finds Water in the Atmosphere of Exoplanet WASP-96b

Sarah Gallagher, who graduated in 2002 with a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics, is science advisor to the president of the Canadian Space Agency. With Nathalie Ouellette, JWST outreach scientist and coordinator at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets at the Université de Montréal, she recently shared data collected by Canada’s NIRISS instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. Watch the video.

Updates from Eberly

Eberly College of Science Mentor Program

Would you like to reconnect with the Eberly College of Science? Do you have valuable expertise to share with others? The Eberly College of Science Mentor Program may be the perfect conduit to help you stay in touch with others in the Eberly community! As a mentor, you can provide additional support to a current student—assisting with resume writing, interviewing skills, career planning, and the transition from college to career. Learn more and register as a mentor.

Melissa Krajcovic named Director of Science Pre-Medicine Programs

On June 13, Melissa Krajcovic began her tenure as the new director of science pre-medicine programs. She succeeds Ron Markle, who retired at the end of June. Melissa earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon in 2011 and first came to Penn State as a biology lecturer at the Altoona and University Park campuses from 2017 to 2019. She joined Penn State's prehealth advising team in 2019 and has been a leader in the effort to revise methods to prepare Penn State students in their applications for medical school and related programs for other health professions. 

Prior to retiring, Ron remarked that there is something special about the current group of advisers in the Eberly College of Science: 

“They have so many great and innovative ideas but haven’t had time to implement them all just yet. They have been striving as a team to make our prehealth advising the best in the country and are constantly working to help our students be as successful as possible. Melissa stood out from the strong pool of applicants because of her passion for exactly this goal—leading Penn State’s premedicine programs and prehealth advising to be the best in the country.” 

Please join us in congratulating Melissa!

Eberly Alumnus Named New Head of Biomedical Engineering

When Dan Hayes graduated from the Penn State Eberly College of Science with a bachelor’s degree in science in 1997, the Department of Biomedical Engineering was still three years away from forming. With an interest in nutrition research and a few engineering courses under his belt, Hayes landed a research assistantship at New York University, studying neural development. Read the full article.