Aomawa Shields

Dr. Aomawa Shields is an Astronomer and Astrobiologist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She was awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship and a UC President’s Postdoctoral Program Fellowship beginning Fall 2014 to study the possible climates of potentially habitable worlds discovered around low-mass stars. Aomawa received her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrobiology from the University of Washington in 2014, and a Sc.B. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from MIT in 1997. She worked in support of the Spitzer Space Telescope as a member of its Science User Support and Observation Planning and Scheduling Teams from 2005 to 2009. Aomawa is also a classically trained Actor and Violinist, receiving her MFA in Acting from UCLA in 2001. She appeared in the film Nine Lives, directed by Rodrigo Garcia, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was one of Ebert and Roeper’s “Top Ten Films of 2005”. She co-hosted the PBS TV show Wired Science, and has appeared on The History Channel’s Universe, and The Discovery Channel’s SciTrek series. She published an essay "Universe: The Sequel" in the anthology "She's Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff" (Seal Press 2006), and the poem "Nefertiti with a Calculator" in the literary journal "Bricolage" (2011). Aomawa uses her theater background to communicate science to the public in engaging, innovative ways. She is deeply committed to the mentorship and empowerment of people traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. Her NSF postdoctoral fellowship supported the development of an interactive astronomy workshop for young middle-school girls of color, which she will conduct with girls in Los Angeles, CA and Cambridge, MA this year. For information on bringing these workshop activities to a community near you, visit http://www.risingstargirls.org .