Debra Fischer

This article is about the American astronomer and academic. For the United States senator, see Deb Fischer.
Debra Ann Fischer
Debra Fischer
Fischer with a keplerian fit for υ And
Born1953
Alma materUniversity of Iowa, San Francisco State University, University of California at Santa Cruz
Known forAstronomy, Exoplanetology
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsYale University

Debra Ann Fischer is an American astronomer who is the Eugene Higgins professor of astronomy at Yale University researching detection and characterization of exoplanets. She has detected hundreds of exoplanets and was part of the team to discover the first known multiple-planet system.[1][2]

Education

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Fischer received her degree in nursing from the University of Iowa in 1975, a masters of science in physics from San Francisco State University in 1992, and her PhD in astrophysics from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1998.[3][4][5]

Research and career

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Fischer has co-authored more than 300 papers on dwarf stars and exoplanets. In two papers with Jeff Valenti,[6] she quantified a correlation between the chemical composition of host stars and the formation of orbiting gas giant planets.[7][8] She led the N2K Consortium with Gregory P. Laughlin, detecting dozens of exoplanets around metal-rich stars at Keck Observatory, Subaru Observatory, and the Magellan Observatory.[2][9] Her work "The Twenty Five Year Lick Planet Search" is summarized in a 2014 paper.[10] In 2015, she organized an international workshop on Extreme Precision Radial Velocities at Yale University[11] and led the conference proceedings paper with 55 co-authors.[12] With the Oxford Zooniverse team, Fischer co-founded the Planet Hunters Citizen Science project.[13]

Fischer has worked on instruments to improve measurement sensitivity for the detection of exoplanets. In 2011, she started the Fiber-optic Improved Next-generation Doppler Search for Exo-Earths with the Planetary Society, an improvement that helped planet hunters find smaller, more Earth-like extrasolar planets.[14] In 2014, she worked with colleagues at Yale University on a microcomb for precise wavelength calibration.[15] She was the principal investigator for three spectrographs: CHIRON, the CTIO High Resolution Spectrometer,[16] VUES, the Vilnius University Echelle Spectrograph [17] and EXPRES, the EXtreme PREcision Spectrograph.[18][19][20][21][22]

Fischer and colleagues[23][24][25] have also helped to advance statistical and machine learning methods to improve data analysis and sensitivity to low mass planets. Fischer served as the Division Director at the National Science Foundation from 2021 - 2023.[26]

Projects and Contributions

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When Fischer discovered the first multiple planet system in 1999, she contributed to the acknowledgement of planet formation by using an analysis that identified and collaborated the impact of structures of planets and their gas giants and even the chemical composition of host stars.[27][28]

Fischer also created a project called planethunters.org, which helped with her and her organization with planet detection. According to Fischer, her "Planet Hunters" project was based on the Kepler Project, further resulting her and her group's expectations of their project to exceed successfully.[29]

Honors and awards

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  • 1993 Graduate Student Fellowship, NSF[27]
  • 1994 Marilyn C. Davis Scholarship, UCSC[27]
  • 1997 California Space Grant, NASA[27]
  • 2002 Carl Sagan Award, American Astronautical Society[27]
  • 2004 Benjamin Dean Lecturer, California Academy of Science[27]
  • 2004 Professional Astronomer for the Communication of Science, Amateur Astronomer Society of Northern California[27]
  • 2005-2007 Cottrell Science Scholar[27]
  • 2009 Radcliffe Institute Fellow: Sept 2009 – June 2010[27]
  • 2010 Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering[27]

References

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  1. ^ Butler, Paul; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Fischer, Debra A.; Brown, Timothy M.; Contos, Adam R.; Korzennik, Sylvain G.; Nisenson, Peter; Noyes, Robert W. (December 1999). "Evidence for Multiple Companions to υ Andromedae". The Astrophysical Journal. 526 (2): 916–927. Bibcode:1999ApJ...526..916B. doi:10.1086/308035. S2CID 123172934.
  2. ^ a b Overbye, Dennis (12 May 2013). "Finder of New Worlds". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  3. ^ Avitia, Claudia (2022-03-03). "Debra Fischer On Scientific Culture and Life On Other Planets". 1400 Degrees. Retrieved 2024-11-12.
  4. ^ "Radcliffe Institute Guest Lecturer Bio". Archived from the original on 12 March 2009. Retrieved 4 February 2008.
  5. ^ "Interview with D. Fischer, Planet-Hunter". theWoman Astronomer. 1 January 2008. Retrieved 4 February 2008.
  6. ^ "DR. JEFF VALENTI".
  7. ^ Fischer, Debra A.; Valenti, Jeff (2005). "The Planet-Metallicity Correlation". The Astrophysical Journal. 622 (2): 1102. Bibcode:2005ApJ...622.1102F. doi:10.1086/428383.
  8. ^ Valenti, Jeff A.; Fischer, Debra A. (2005). "Spectroscopic Properties of Cool Stars (SPOCS). I. 1040 F, G, and K Dwarfs from Keck, Lick, and AAT Planet Search Programs". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 159 (1): 141. Bibcode:2005ApJS..159..141V. doi:10.1086/430500.
  9. ^ "N2K Consortium". Yale astronomy. Retrieved 5 March 2018.
  10. ^ Fischer, Debra A.; Marcy, Geoffrey W.; Spronck, Julien F. P. (2014). "The Twenty-five Year Lick Planet Search". The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. 210 (1): 5. arXiv:1310.7315. Bibcode:2014ApJS..210....5F. doi:10.1088/0067-0049/210/1/5.
  11. ^ "The Extreme Precision Radial Velocities Workshop".
  12. ^ Fischer, Debra A.; et al. (2016). "State of the Field: Extreme Precision Radial Velocities". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 128 (964). arXiv:1602.07939. Bibcode:2016PASP..128f6001F. doi:10.1088/1538-3873/128/964/066001.
  13. ^ "AAS Names Debra Fischer as Kavli Foundation Plenary Lecturer". 20 February 2018.
  14. ^ "Alpha Centauri Planet Search". The Planetary Society. Retrieved 2024-11-13.
  15. ^ "Red, Blue, Infrared Frequency Comb Generation". 24 August 2015. pp. 27D2_5.
  16. ^ "MRI: Development of Chiron: CTIO High Resolution Spectrometer". Research Commercialization and SBIR Center. San Francisco State University. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 27 February 2014.
  17. ^ Jurgenson, Colby; Fischer, Debra; McCracken, Tyler; Sawyer, David; Giguere, Matt; Szymkowiak, Andrew; Santoro, Fernando; Muller, Gary (2016). "Design and Construction of VUES: The Vilnius University Echelle Spectrograph". Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation. 5 (2): 1650003–1650239. arXiv:1601.06024. Bibcode:2016JAI.....550003J. doi:10.1142/S2251171716500033.
  18. ^ Jurgenson, C.; Fischer, D.; McCracken, T.; Sawyer, D.; Szymkowiak, A.; Davis, A.; Muller, G.; Santoro, F. (2016). Evans, Christopher J.; Simard, Luc; Takami, Hideki (eds.). "EXPRES: a next generation RV spectrograph in the search for earth-like worlds". Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy VI. 9908: 99086T. arXiv:1606.04413. Bibcode:2016SPIE.9908E..6TJ. doi:10.1117/12.2233002.
  19. ^ Brewer, John M.; Fischer, Debra A.; Blackman, Ryan T.; Cabot, Samuel H. C.; Davis, Allen B.; Laughlin, Gregory; Leet, Christopher; Ong, J. M. Joel; Petersburg, Ryan R.; Szymkowiak, Andrew E.; Zhao, Lily L.; Henry, Gregory W.; Llama, Joe (2020). "EXPRES. I. HD 3651 as an Ideal RV Benchmark". The Astronomical Journal. 160 (2): 67. arXiv:2006.02303. Bibcode:2020AJ....160...67B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ab99c9.
  20. ^ Cabot, Samuel H. C.; Roettenbacher, Rachael M.; Henry, Gregory W.; Zhao, Lily; Harmon, Robert O.; Fischer, Debra A.; Brewer, John M.; Llama, Joe; Petersburg, Ryan R.; Szymkowiak, Andrew E. (2021). "EXPRES. II. Searching for Planets around Active Stars: A Case Study of HD 101501". The Astronomical Journal. 161 (1): 26. arXiv:2010.14717. Bibcode:2021AJ....161...26C. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/abc41e.
  21. ^ Roettenbacher, Rachael M.; Cabot, Samuel H. C.; Fischer, Debra A.; Monnier, John D.; Henry, Gregory W.; Harmon, Robert O.; Korhonen, Heidi; Brewer, John M.; Llama, Joe; Petersburg, Ryan R.; Zhao, Lily L.; Kraus, Stefan; Le Bouquin, Jean-Baptiste; Anugu, Narsireddy; Davies, Claire L.; Gardner, Tyler; Lanthermann, Cyprien; Schaefer, Gail; Setterholm, Benjamin; Clark, Catherine A.; Jorstad, Svetlana G.; Kuehn, Kyler; Levine, Stephen (2022). "EXPRES. III. Revealing the Stellar Activity Radial Velocity Signature of ϵ Eridani with Photometry and Interferometry". The Astronomical Journal. 163 (1): 19. arXiv:2110.10643. Bibcode:2022AJ....163...19R. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/ac3235.
  22. ^ Brewer, John M.; Zhao, Lily L.; Fischer, Debra A.; Roettenbacher, Rachael M.; Henry, Gregory W.; Llama, Joe; Szymkowiak, Andrew E.; Cabot, Samuel H. C.; Weiss, Sam A.; McCarthy, Chris (2023). "EXPRES. IV. Two Additional Planets Orbiting ρ Coronae Borealis Reveal Uncommon System Architecture". The Astronomical Journal. 166 (2): 46. arXiv:2306.06888. Bibcode:2023AJ....166...46B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/acdd6f.
  23. ^ "Jessi Cisewski Kehe".
  24. ^ "Eric Ford".
  25. ^ "Lily Zhao, Ph.D."
  26. ^ "Appointment of Division Director, Division of Astronomical Sciences - Debra Fischer".
  27. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Debra Fischer Curriculum Vitae Jan 2012" (PDF).
  28. ^ "Debra Ann Fischer". National Academy of Sciences.
  29. ^ "Kepler Will Make Us All Planet Hunters". Popular Mechanics.
  30. ^ "Debra Ann Fischer". 6 June 2024.
  31. ^ San Francisco State University (2016-12-14). Debra Fischer - 2016 Hall of Fame Inductee. Retrieved 2024-11-17 – via YouTube.
  32. ^ "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  33. ^ "2021 Fellows". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
  34. ^ "2021 NAS Election". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
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- https://www.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/alumni/made-in-the-csu/san-francisco/Pages/fischer.aspx#:~:text=In%20recognition%20of%20her%20pioneering,and%20the%20Cottrell%20Scholar%20program

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87yX6Ukd2OU&list=TLPQMTQxMTIwMjTwHj5ZsdJJ4w&index=4

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVsbqZZRjjQ

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