When Sally Ride became the first American woman to fly into space, aboard the shuttle Challenger in 1983, Amy Simon-Miller was hooked.

“I was just about 12 years old and decided I wanted to be the first woman on Mars,” says Simon-Miller, who completed her Ph.D. in astronomy at NMSU in 1998 and now is an astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

It’s a defining trait among astronomers, this early fascination with science and the wonders of the universe. And if a survey of a half dozen NMSU astronomy grads is any indication, they tend to be equally passionate about the non-scientific interests in their lives.

The NASA astrophysicist

Jupiter replaced Mars as the object of Simon-Miller’s fascination when she was a grad student working with NMSU astronomer Reta Beebe, one of the world’s leading experts on the giant planet. So it was no surprise when Simon-Miller was quoted in major media outlets last year as the lead scientist on a Hubble Space Telescope study of a second red spot emerging on Jupiter.

Being interviewed by and other media was flattering, Simon-Miller says. But asked about the high point of her still-young career, she reflects on less-glamorous aspects.

“In terms of important work, it was probably going back to Voyager data that was 20 years old and still finding new things people hadn’t seen before,” she says. “That was certainly a byproduct of studying at NMSU. Reta Beebe instilled the importance of mining all data sets, not discarding them just because something newer has come along.”

At NASA/Goddard, Simon-Miller is involved with the daily operations of the Cassini spacecraft and the Composite Infrared Spectrometer on that mission.

Her husband, Neal Miller, who completed his Ph.D. in astronomy at NMSU in 2001, is the Jansky Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The Man at The Helm

Kevin Marvel’s former classmates remember weekends at Elephant Butte reservoir, sailing on his sailboat and having cookouts. Now that same sailboat has a slot in a marina on the Potomac River about a mile from Marvel’s Alexandria home.

Marvel, who completed his Ph.D. in 1996, is the executive officer of the American Astronomical Society.

The AAS, with about 6,500 active members, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Marvel oversees the society’s activities, including twice-a-year meetings, the publication of scholarly research journals, and the promotion of astronomy through public policy and educational outreach.

Needless to say, he’s not as directly involved in research as when he was a postdoctoral researcher at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, but he considers the tradeoff a profitable one.

“I think, interestingly, I probably have a bigger impact in this job than I could possibly have as a researcher,” he says. An accomplished communicator, he is in a position to influence public policy on astronomy as leader of the AAS.

He also shares his skills and knowledge with his alma mater, serving on the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Council on Excellence in the Sciences.

In addition to his sailboat, Marvel is restoring two classic Chris-Craft boats.

The mission designer

As a research astronomer, Harold Reitsema was a member of the teams that discovered Larissa, one of Neptune’s moons, and Telesto, one of Saturn’s, in the early 1980s. Today he is director for science mission development at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.

Reitsema’s group develops new mission concepts and contracts with NASA to build spaceflight missions.

Reitsema says he can trace his career path back to the seventh grade.

“I began to focus on astronomy when I discovered it was possible to build your own telescope,” he recalls.

When it came time to choose a college, he looked to the clear skies of the Southwest.

“Through a combination of factors, not the least the fact that Clyde Tombaugh was at NMSU, I ended up there,” he says. “Clyde Tombaugh was a superb telescope builder and he had skills I wanted to learn.”

After finishing his Ph.D. in 1977, Reitsema spent about five years at the University of Arizona, studying objects in the solar system. He has been with Ball Aerospace for 25 years.

Like Marvel, Reitsema serves on the Dean’s Council for Excellence in the Sciences.

The comet discoverer

Alan Hale’s discovery in 1995 of Comet Hale-Bopp “opened doors that never would have opened otherwise,” he says.

Two of those openings involved leading delegations of American scientists, students and educators to Iran – the first in 1999 to collect observations of a total solar eclipse and the second in 2000 to participate in an international astronomical conference.

Those forays into “person-to-person science diplomacy” put Hale on the path to his current enterprise, The Earthrise Institute, with an ambitious goal of “using astronomy as a tool for bringing the planet together.” His vision is a worldwide globally interconnected network of astronomical facilities.

Anousheh Ansari, a native of Iran who became famous in 2006 as the first female space tourist, is backing Hale’s global telescope network with a $100,000 matching grant. Contingent upon his raising an equal amount in donations by the end of 2007, the grant will help Hale develop his telescope site in the Sacramento Mountains of southern New Mexico.

Hale made his first observations of a comet at age 11, as a sixth-grader in Alamogordo, N.M., using a Sears telescope his father bought him. He earned his Ph.D. in astronomy at NMSU in 1992.

Shakespeare, anyone?

Jason Kendall’s day job is on Wall Street, but his passions are theater and science.

He has produced about 20 off-off-Broadway (read “experimental”) plays and is particularly proud of a public outreach program he and his wife started, called Shakespeare Saturdays. “We cast minority actors in leads and dominant roles of our shows,” he says.

Kendall, who earned his master’s in astronomy in 1993, has made a return to astronomy recently – as a volunteer running the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History. “I’m teaching other people how to present astronomy concepts – and using theater concepts to do it,” he says.

But back to his day job. Kendall is a manager of systems administration for Cantor-Fitzgerald, a securities company that occupied the top three floors of one of the World Trade Center towers.

On September 11, 2001, he says, “I was one of those five-minutes-late guys.”

Nearly all of his coworkers died in the terrorist attacks. Kendall was instrumental in assisting Cantor-Fitzgerald in the recovery from the disaster.

He says his work involves technical expertise that he learned in astronomy.

The inner-city science teacher

Clearly, the Astronomy Department’s emphasis on outreach has influenced the careers of its graduates.

“Absolutely!” says Vanessa Galarza, who moved to Chicago after earning her master’s degree in 1998 and spent several years developing a career exploration program for teens at the Museum of Science and Industry. Now she teaches physics and astronomy at Noble Street Charter School, a public school that provides a strong education for inner-city children in a primarily Hispanic neighborhood.

“This year, we expanded the school, opening up two replica schools in other Hispanic communities, and next year we will add two more,” Galarza says. “One of those schools is called the Rowe-Clark Math and Science Academy, an Excelon campus of the Noble Network of Charter Schools. I will be the director of science and math at that school. It will serve a primarily African-American community.”

As a teacher, her role models include Rene Walterbos, her research adviser at NMSU, and astronomy faculty members Jon Holtzman and Anatoly Klypin. “I learned a lot of science from them but more importantly, learned how to maintain high standards and accountability for my students,” she says. “When I think of good teachers, I think of them.”