Miriam Hernández

Miriam Hernández is a prominent astrophysicist known for her pioneering work in the characterization of exoplanet atmospheres using next-generation space telescopes. Her research has provided critical insights into the chemical composition and physical conditions of worlds orbiting distant stars, significantly advancing the field of comparative planetary science. Hernández has held key positions at major international observatories and has been recognized with several prestigious awards for her contributions to astronomy.

Early life and education

Born in Madrid, Spain, Hernández developed an early fascination with the night sky, often visiting the Madrid Planetarium. She pursued her undergraduate studies in physics at the Complutense University of Madrid, where she conducted research on stellar spectroscopy under the mentorship of Professor Carme Jordi. For her doctoral work, she earned a competitive Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship to join the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge at the University of Cambridge. There, she completed her PhD in astrophysics under the supervision of renowned planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, focusing her thesis on atmospheric models for gas giants detected by the Kepler space telescope.

Career

Following her PhD, Hernández secured a postdoctoral fellowship at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Garching, Germany, working within the Science Operations Department. She later transitioned to a research scientist role at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, leading an observational program focused on transit spectroscopy. In 2018, she was appointed as a Project Scientist for the Mid-Infrared Instrument team associated with the James Webb Space Telescope, a position she held in collaboration with the Space Telescope Science Institute. Her career has also included advisory roles for the European Space Agency's future ARIEL mission and serving on time-allocation committees for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Research and contributions

Hernández's research is centered on decoding the atmospheres of exoplanets, particularly hot Jupiters and super-Earths. She co-led a groundbreaking study using the Hubble Space Telescope to detect water vapor in the atmosphere of the exoplanet HD 209458 b, a finding published in the journal Nature. Her innovative analysis techniques for data from the Spitzer Space Telescope helped constrain atmospheric temperature profiles and the presence of clouds and hazes on worlds like WASP-12b. More recently, her team's early results from the James Webb Space Telescope provided the first clear evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet, K2-18 b, a discovery highlighted by NASA and the European Space Agency. Her work often involves sophisticated computational models and collaborations with institutions like the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the University of Chicago.

Awards and recognition

In recognition of her early-career achievements, Hernández was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. She is also a recipient of the Gruber Fellowship in Cosmology. Her research has been supported by grants from the German Research Foundation and the Spanish National Research Council. She was invited to present her work at the prestigious Solvay Conference on Physics and has been named a Sloan Research Fellow. In 2022, an asteroid discovered by the Pan-STARRS survey, 15273 Hernández, was named in her honor by the International Astronomical Union.

Personal life

Hernández is an advocate for increasing the participation of women in STEM fields and frequently gives public lectures at institutions like the Royal Institution and the Frankfurt Book Fair. An avid mountaineer, she has combined her passion for climbing with astronomy outreach, organizing star-gazing events from remote locations like the Atacama Desert in Chile. She is fluent in Spanish, English, and German, and resides in Heidelberg with her family.

Category:Spanish astrophysicists Category:Exoplanetologists Category:Women astronomers