Inge Heyer
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Inge Heyer was born and raised in Berlin, Germany. She completed her secondary education there, after which she accepted a scholarship to attend Tenri University in Tenri, Japan. Following a life-long dream she studied martial arts and the Japanese language, as well as travelled extensively in this fascinating country. After this two-year academic "detour" she decided to follow her interest in astronomy (fuelled by watching way too much Star Trek in high school), and came to the US to pursue an undergraduate degree at Smith College in Massachusetts.
With an BA in physics and astronomy Inge then attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she obtained a master's degree in astronomy, and pursued many years of research, which often took her to the observatories atop beautiful Mauna Kea. From 1992 to 2005 Inge was a senior data analyst at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, working on images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide-Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) as well as the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). Space Telescope has a very active educational and public outreach program, in which Inge participated as a volunteer.
Still watching way too much Star Trek and also Babylon 5, Inge has been very involved in Baltimore-Washington Science Fiction activities. She gives presentations about astronomy and space science at conventions throughout the nation and Europe. She has also done this for schools of all levels, libraries, and community groups.
In March of 2006 Inge moved back to Hawaii to lead the outreach efforts for the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo. She is looking forward to visiting all the Big Island schools and community groups to talk about the exciting astronomy work on Mauna Kea. She misses the East Coast fans and conventions, but it appears that there are many fans right here on the Big Island as well. Something fannish has already started at Imiloa...
And in case you were wondering how the Hubble images got into episodes of Babylon-5 and Star Trek, you're looking at the trouble-maker who instigated this...
Her hobbies include Photography, Martial Arts (Judo, Karate), SF/Mystery Literature, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Stargate SG-1, Abarenbo Shogun, Karl May, and good beer.
She has a strong interest in Extrasolar Planetary Systems, and has over 20 years of public outreach and lecturing experience.
On top of all this she somehow found time to be a NAUI certified SCUBA diver, be Red Cross certified in CPR and a Shodan in Karate.
To my knowledge this will be her first visit to Ireland, and I'm sure she will add an extra dimension to the panels at P-Con.
For more details you can view her Personal Website
Guest Profile by Frank Darcy
Last updated August 4 2007
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