Sarah Ballard
Sarah Ballard (born 1984) is an American astronomer who is a professor at the University of Florida. She has been a Torres Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a L'Oreal Fellow, and a NASA Carl Sagan Fellow.
Sarah Ashley Ballard | |
|---|---|
Ballard in 2021 | |
| Born | 1984 (age 39–40) |
| Education | B.A. Astrophysics, UC Berkeley Ph.D. Astronomy and Astrophysics, Harvard (2012) |
| Known for | Discovery of Kepler-19c (first exoplanet by transit-timing variation) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Exoplanetary astrophysics |
| Thesis | In Pursuit of New Worlds: Searches for and Studies of Transiting Exoplanets from Three Space-Based Observatories (2012) |
| Doctoral advisor | David Charbonneau |
| Website | drballard |
Ballard was part of a collaborative team that was the first to successfully use the transit-timing variation method. This resulted in her team's confirmation of this theoretical search procedure and the discovery of the Kepler-19 planetary system with that technique. Ballard took part in the discovery of four exoplanets (early numbered) in the Kepler spacecraft mission prior to its finding of significant quantities of planets around other stars.
Ballard has spoken about her experience as a victim of sexual harassment, about imposter syndrome, and about the controversy over the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories.