Jovian Vortex Hunter

Ramanakumar Sankar -- Researcher

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities working on human-computer optimization problems and data science problems using neural networks on the Zooniverse citizen science platform. I am also working on using JunoCam images from the Juno spacecraft to classify cloud features in the jovian atmosphere using the Zooniverse platform coupled with a neural network. I did my Ph.D. in Space Sciences at Florida Tech, where my focus was on numerical simulations of Jupiter's atmosphere, specifically in modelling convective thunderstorms. The focus of my dissertation work was using the EPIC (Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate) model to study convective water clouds on Jupiter which have been observed to grow into large storm complexes that result in planetary scale disturbances. I helped add a sub-grid scale moist convective scheme to the model so as to simulate these storms, and understand the structure of the deep jovian atmosphere.

Shawn Brueshaber -- Researcher

Shawn is a planetary atmospheric scientist researching the dynamics of the four giant planets using the global circulation model, EPIC (Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate). He is a postdoctoral researcher at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and a member of the Juno Mission’s science team. In addition to modeling, Shawn processes JunoCam and JIRAM images to study the morphology and dynamics of vortices, jet streams, clouds, and storms in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Prior to joining JPL, Shawn spent 21 years designing products and systems in the aerospace, mechanical, paper and pulp, and appliance industries, as well as conducting stress, fatigue & fracture, and fluid analyses. From time to time he has also taught graduate and undergraduate engineering courses at Western Michigan University.

Candice Hansen-Koharcheck -- Researcher

Dr. Candice Hansen-Koharcheck is a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. Her primary interest is the study of ices, polar caps and seasonal processes throughout the solar system. With a B.S. in Physics from California State University, Fullerton, she began her career at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1977, working with the Voyager Imaging Science team. She continued working on Voyager through the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune flybys. In 1994, she earned her Ph.D. at the University of California, Los Angeles. Currently she is the deputy Principal Investigator for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter high-resolution camera (“HiRISE”), and is science theme lead for the study of Mars’ seasonal CO2 polar caps. She also pursues that interest as a Co-Investigator on the Colour and Stereo Surface Imager (CaSSIS) on the European Mars Trace Gas Orbiter. As a Co-Investigator on the Juno mission, in orbit around Jupiter since 2016, she leads the JunoCam camera team. The goal for JunoCam is primarily to engage the public in processing images of Jupiter, however the images are also very useful for scientific research.

Glenn Orton -- Researcher

Glenn Orton has been interested in planets since early elementary school; his high-school science fair project was “Physiochemical Characteristics of Jupiter by Indirect Methods”. He graduated from Brown University in 1970 with an Sc.B. in physics (honors) and from Caltech in 1975 with a Ph.D. in planetary science. He has over 45 years of experience investigating planetary atmospheres using Earth-based and spacecraft instrumentation. He’s been a member of mission science teams on: Pioneers 10 and 11, Galileo, Cassini, and Juno. He has also been a collaborating astronomer on the European Space Agency’s Infrared Space Observatory and Herschel Space Telescope, as well as being Principal and Co-Investigator on open calls for the Hubble, Spitzer Space Telescope, Herschel Space Telescope, and James Webb Space Telescope. He led the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility observing campaign for the 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact into Jupiter and contributed to ground-based support campaigns for Pioneers 10 and 11, Galileo, and Cassini. In addition to engaging in support campaigns for the Juno mission, he is in charge of the coordination of Juno-supporting observations from Earth-based platforms. On Juno, he also contributes to the investigations of Jupiter’s atmosphere in the visible with JunoCam, the infrared with the JIRAM instrument, and the microwave with the Microwave Radiometer (MWR). He is the author of over 290 articles or book chapters and the principal author of 45 of these. He has also mentored over 250 student interns over his career at JPL. He has recently taken on an additional role as the Supervisor for JPL’s Planetary and Exoplanetary Atmospheres Group.

Chris Lintott -- Zooniverse Team

	Chris Lintott runs the Zooniverse collaboration and works on all sorts of astronomical problems, including understanding galaxies, finding unusual things and thinking about interstellar objects. In his 'spare' time, he hunts for planets, presents the BBC's long-running Sky at Night program which took him to mission control for Juno’s arrival at Jupiter, and plays real tennis.

Kameswara Mantha -- Zooniverse Team

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota in Twin Cities with the Zooniverse citizen science platform team, working on developing human-computer optimized, novel deep-learning based anomaly detection frameworks. I am currently analyzing the physical properties of anomalous galaxies identified within Integral Field Unit (IFU) based 3D spatial and spectroscopic data from the MaNGA survey and within a large sample of ~243K nearby galaxies from the GalaxyZoo2 Zooniverse project. I specialize in the study of galaxy collisions (aka. mergers) and their role in the overall growth and development of galaxies over the Universe's history. I did my Ph.D. in Physics and Astronomy at University of Missouri Kansas City, where my primary research focus was to derive robust measurement of the rate at which galaxies merge (merger rate). My dissertation work involved using observational data from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) based CANDELS survey and synthetic HST-like data from cosmological simulations to study galaxies in close-proximity pairs and improve the identification faint galaxy merger signatures called as tidal features. During this work, I have developed public software tools that enable easy identification and extraction of galaxy merger signatures in imaging data and used machine learning to improve our understanding about them.

Lucy Fortson -- Zooniverse Team

	I am a co-founder of the Zooniverse platform and PI of the Zooniverse@UMN group. My research area is in Very High Energy gamma rays, but one of the reasons why I love working with the Zooniverse is it gives me a chance to play in other research areas - in this case with data from Jupiter. But really, who doesn't love looking at the amazingly beautiful images of Jupiter from JunoCam!