Dr. Faith Vilas

Faith is currently a Senior Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona. Her areas of interest are asteroids, dwarf planets, Mercury, the Moon, and small satellites. She pioneered remote sensing of the Solar System, pushing capabilities through instrument design and expert observations. She designed the coronagraph used to acquire the first image of a circumstellar disk around another star and made the first asteroid survey using a CCD spectrograph. She made pioneering observations of aqueous alteration on primitive asteroids, the mineralogy of Mercury (no iron there!), and hydration on the Moon. Future mining companies will likely rely on her work when prospecting asteroids.

Her distinguished career includes:

Ground-breaking scientific work at the NASA Johnson Space Center (1985-2005),

Director of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory (2005-2010),

Program Director for planets and exoplanets, National Science Foundation (2015-2018), and

Scientist at the Planetary Science Institute (2011-2015 and 2018- present).

Faith earned her BA in astronomy at Wellesley College (1973), and her MS in Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT (1975). She completed her Doctoral degree in Planetary Sciences in 1984 at the University of Arizona.

FUN FACTS:

* Faith goes on RV and other travel adventures with her husband Larry.

* In 2013, Faith flew a Cessna seaplane to recreate the flight that her grandfather and pioneer aviator Logan A. (Jack) Vilas made July 1, 1913 when he become the first person to fly an airplane across Lake Michigan. See https://www.psi.edu/blog/flight-marks-100-year-anniversary-of-first-crossing-of-lake-michigan/

* An asteroid is named after her!

More about Faith is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith_Vilas.