New Faculty: June 2016
Rebekah Dawson, assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics, focuses her research on understanding how planetary systems beyond our solar system originate. She is interested in identifying the key factors that contribute to planetary formation and evolution and that lead to the wide variety of planetary orbital and compositional properties observed in extrasolar planets. She combines simulations and theory with statistics and data analysis of observed planets to test theories of the origins of planetary systems. Dawson is developing a comprehensive blueprint to help understand newly discovered planets in the context of their system’s formation and evolution—important factors in whether the planets may harbor life. Prior to joining the faculty at Penn State, Dawson was a Miller Research Fellow at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science at the University of California, Berkely from 2013 to 2015. She earned her doctoral degree in astronomy and astrophysics at Harvard University in 2013.
Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, professor of biology, focuses his research on coral biology. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the photobiological processes involved in coral growth. Corals are an important component of the marine ecosystem and are comprised of both nonliving and living components. One of Iglesias-Prieto’s most recent contributions demonstrated an important function of the nonliving components of coral in capturing light that is used by the living components in photobiological processes, showing how global warming patterns are adversely affecting these communities. Before joining the faculty at Penn State, Iglesias-Prieto was professor in the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnologia at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1996 to 2016 and was head of the Reef Systems Academic Unit there from 2008 to 2014. He was senior scientist in the Department of Ecology at the Centro de Investigación Cientifica y Estudios Superiores de Ensenada in Mexico from 1994 to 1996 and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1993 to 1994. Iglesias-Pietro earned his doctoral degree in aquatic and population biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1993.