Susan E. Mullally

Dr. Susan E. Mullally (née Thompson) is an expert in astronomical time series data collection and analysis and has used these skills to study the population of exoplanets in our Galaxy and the details of stellar evolution. She is currently the Deputy Project Scientist for JWST and works to ensure the scientific productivity of the JWST mission. Previously she worked in the MAST as the lead for archiving the data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, to help develop the exo.MAST interface, and to improve the archive for the TESS and Kepler missions.

Prior to her employment at STScI, Dr. Mullally was a scientist for the Kepler Science Office. As part of that team, Dr. Mullally led the creation of the final Kepler catalog of exoplanet candidates in such a way that it can be used to reliably determine the frequency of small planets in our Galaxy. As part of that work she developed a machine learning technique to automatically vet signals found from the Kepler spacecraft. She has also worked to find and understand a new class of tidally-distorted, eccentric binary stars known as heartbeat stars. Earlier in her career she developed tools and organized the data collection efforts of the Whole Earth Telescope, a collaboration of ground-based telescopes that work to measure the pulsations of white dwarf stars. Dr. Mullally started her career as an assistant professor at Colorado College and enjoyed teaching students the art of astronomical observing.

Dr. Mullally enjoys giving outreach talks and most recently has been found teaching local pre-schoolers about planets and hikers on top of a mountain in Ireland about unusual exoplanets.

Education:

PhD in Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
MS in Physics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
BA in Physics, Hanover College

Science Interests:

• Occurrence rates of exoplanets
• Removing False Alarms from exoplanet catalogs
• Mode Identification in pulsating white dwarf stars
• Detection of exoplanet atmospheres

Research Topics: Exoplanets; Binary stars; White dwarf stars

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-7106-4683