Director of STEM Activities

Research

Phone: (831) 656-3847

Email: jennifer.carson@nps.edu

Jennifer Carson holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics from UCLA, an M.S. in physics from SFSU, and a B.S. in physics from MIT. She has taught college physics for twenty years at a range of institutions, from elite private colleges to community colleges. Before beginning her teaching career, she worked in several areas of astrophysical research, including studies of high-redshift active galaxies at radio, rest-frame-optical, and gamma-ray wavelengths. As a post-doctoral researcher, she contributed to the development and science goals for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope at Stanford’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She has published over a dozen articles in peer-reviewed astrophysical journals and presented her research nationally and internationally. Her STEM outreach experience includes managing the Information Science Hall at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Jennifer also holds an MFA in creative writing and literature from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. Her writing for a popular audience has appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Science, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among other publications. Her first novel, The Savage Path, is currently on submission at several publishing houses. In 2020, she founded the literary organization To the Lighthouse, where she facilitates book clubs, teaches close-reading, and hosts author events and literary retreats. She enjoys straddling the divide between science and literature, between the analytical and the affective.