WAPT 2022 Plenary Talk

Wisconsin Association of Physics Teachers (WAPT)

Plenary Talk: Friday, November 4, 7:00 PM, UW-Stevens Point, Laird Room, Dreyfus University Center (DUC)

The James Webb Space Telescope: NASA’s Latest Great Observatory

Aaron Steffen

Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy

UW- Stevens Point

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is NASA’s most recent major space telescope.  In my talk I will discuss the JWST from inception to today, highlighting both its amazing capabilities and the science that astronomers hope to accomplish over its lifetime.

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Aaron Steffen is an associate professor of Physics and Astronomy at UW- Stevens Point.  Prior to that he taught for the UW Colleges (UW-Marathon County).  He is a native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin.  He received a B.S. degree in Physics and Mathematics from UW-Eau Claire and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from UW-Madison.  Before moving into teaching, Aaron worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at both Penn State and NASA’s Spitzer Science Center (located on Caltech’s campus).  For his Ph.D. thesis he studied the multi-wavelength properties and evolution of super-massive black holes in the centers of galaxies. His current interests include detecting extrasolar planets using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.