Katie Morzinski

Katie Morzinski is a cross-disciplinary expert in astronomy, instrumentation, and education. She received a BS in Elementary Education and a BA in Astronomy & Physics from Boston University in 2001. She then taught high school chemistry and physics for 2 years in Namibia, southwestern Africa, with the U.S. Peace Corps. Following her Peace Corps teaching experience, she decided to pursue professional astronomy and earned a PhD from the University of California-Santa Cruz in 2011, with a dissertation entitled "Adaptive optics for high-contrast imaging of faint substellar companions." As part of her dissertation she helped develop the adaptive optics system of the Gemini Planet Imager instrument in Chile, which imaged the first young Jupiter-like analog, 51 Eri b. She is now an Assistant Astronomer at the University of Arizona where she is the Instrument Scientist of the Magellan Adaptive Optics instrument, which was used to discover the super-Jupiter exoplanet on a wider-than-Pluto orbit, HD 106906 b; and to characterize the atmosphere of young super-Jupiter beta Pic b.