named by Discover magazine in 2003 as one of the 50 most important women in science. The California native is an MIT graduate was a member of the Imaging Science Team for the Voyager 2 encounter with Neptune in 1989 and the principal investigator of the team that monitored the impact of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 using the Hubble Space Telescope; during the impact, Hammel served as the face of NASA, explaining the science to a worldwide television audience. Hammel later was the James Webb Space Telescope interdisciplinary scientist before becoming the executive vice-president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. Among her numerous awards and honours is the prestigious Carl Sagan Medal for her ability to communicate science to the public. The US National Academy of Science published her biography, Beyond Jupiter: The Story of Planetary Astronomer Heidi Hammel, as part of its ‘Women’s Adventures in Science’ series. Asteroid 3530 is named Hammel in her honour.

US planetary astronomer Heidi Hammel, who was named by Discover magazine as one of the 50 most important women in science. She is currently an interdisciplinary scientist on the James Webb Space Telescope project.

Photo Credit: NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center