Alumni

CIS Undergraduate Research Sparks Prestigious Professorship in Astronomy

By Amy Mednick

A poster book of huge, colorful photographs of the giant planets taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft captivated Sally Dodson-Robinson as a child in Los Angeles. “I thought it was really cool. All these pictures of planets and moons,” she says. “I always liked astronomy when I was a child, but I didn’t know how you would go about having a career in astronomy.”

She toyed with photography and always enjoyed science, but everything fell into place as a junior at the Center for Imaging Science. That year and the following year, Dodson-Robinson carried out a research project on binary stars with then-CIS Professor Elliot Horch. This close contact with a working astronomer motivated her to pursue astronomy as a career.

Dodson-Robinson, now 31, received a Bachelor of Science degree from CIS in May 2002, graduating summa cum laude as the College of Science Student Delegate. She also accepted the College of Science Outstanding Scholar Award. She is in the midst of her third year as assistant professor of astrophysics at the University of Texas, Austin.