Dr. Heidi B. Hammel received her undergraduate degree from MIT in 1982 and her Ph.D. from U. Hawaii in 1988. After a post-doc at JPL, she returned to MIT. She spent nearly nine years there as a Principal Research Scientist in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. She is a Senior Research Scientist with SSI, and since 2011 has been serving as the Executive Vice President of AURA, the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. She is also Vice President of The Planetary Society. Heidi's research has focused on ground- and space-based studies of Uranus and Neptune, as well as impacts on Jupiter. She is an Interdisciplinary Scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which is scheduled for launch in 2018. Heidi also does a significant amount of award-winning education and public outreach work. She lives in Annandale, Virginia.
