Contact:

kumari@stsci.edu

STScI

3700 San Martin Dr

Baltimore, MD 21210, USA

James Webb Space Telescope (Credit: ESA)

As an ESA/AURA astronomer, I devote half of my time in supporting  the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST or Webb). I am currently the Lead of Webb Science and Operations Calibration Planning Team and the Calibration lead of NIRSpec instrument. Besides, I also serve in other roles, such as instrument scientist, where I help observers to make the best use of the allocated observing time on JWST.

JWST was launched on Dec 25, 2021. Please find the latest news here. I was fortunate to be a member of the ESA Science & Operations Team responsible for commissioning JWST. I served in various roles such as test lead, quick look analyst during commissioning and various preparatory works before commissioning.


Hubble Space Telescope (Credit: ESA)

As an STScI Prize Fellow, I supported COS instrument aboard Hubble Space Telescope from Oct 2019-Oct 2020. During that time, I worked on the blue modes of COS, which was required for the Director's Discretionary Program ULLYSES. My main contribution was improving the wavelength calibration of the blue modes:  the link to the relevant Instrument Science Report is here. Besides, I worked as a contact scienctist for COS.