Parker
Howdy. I am a researcher and Assistant Director at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). I previously worked for NASA. Since 1987 I have been studying massive stars and how they affect their environment, particularly in the Magellanic Clouds but also including other nearby galaxies such as M33. Since I began working at SwRI in 1996, about half of my research is spent on solar system topics, with a focus on the Kuiper Belt. Other topics include study of the Moon, asteroids, comets,Pluto, and other Solar System stuff. I am the editor of Distant EKOs, the Kuiper belt electronic newsletter.
To steal a section from my CV, my work involves...
...photometric and spectroscopic multi-wavelength (x-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, millimeter) studies in planetary and stellar astrophysics using ground-based (e.g., CTIO, KPNO, MDM, McDonald, Las Campanas, NRAO) space-based (e.g., HST, Rosetta, New Horizons, Deep Space 1 (DS1), SWUIS, IUE, ISO, UIT), and sub-orbital instruments.You can get a PDF copy of my CV, and a collection of my papers, or check out the most recent ADS list of my papers. (or, you can get the sub-lists of papers in refereed journals or other papers like MPECs, conference proceedings, etc.).Topics of interest include Comets; Centaurs and Kuiper Belt objects; Pluto; Luna; young stellar groups and their environments; initial mass functions and star-formation rates; interactions of massive stars with the ISM; luminous blue variables; data reduction and analysis techniques.
The SwRI main office is in San Antonio, Texas, which boasts nearly 3000 employees. SwRI has a number of branch offices, and I work in the Boulder, Colorado office (the Department of Space Studies). The following links are mostly for my use, not of much external interest: via the institute intranet, there are local pages for Division 15 and its helpdesk, and a nice page from the Space Plasma Physics Section.
I love being an astronomer, but I really want to be an astronaut on the Space Shuttle with other astronauts! I guess that fits in with my personality type. There is the discussion list and page for all us AsCan wannabes (and a message board), as well as a page for the JSC Astronaut Selection Office and another nicely-designed page. You can find more details in the Astronaut Fact Book. To find out if you have the Right Stuff, check out this book about Space Medicine in Project Mercury from NASA's History Office.
He believed in the primacy of doubt, not as a blemish on our ability to know but as the essence of knowing..--- James Gleick in his biography of Richard Feynman.
Joel Parker
(joel@boulder.swri.edu)
