Women in STEM Award winner profile: Diana Dragomir
Editor’s note: This Women in STEM Award winner profile is part of a series of stories that explores what recipients have been working on since the awards began in 2106.
UNM Physics and Astronomy professor aims to understand how planets form
Key info: Through the award, Dragomir and her students will add to our understanding of exoplanets, some 5, 000 of which have been discovered to date.
“This project takes the quest one step further by enabling a search for planets orbiting pairs of stars – real-life “Tatooines,” she said. “Developed in conjunction with a student in my research group, this research will help astronomers better understand how planets form.”
Quote: “I want to just understand for our own knowledge whether our solar system is unique or whether a lot of solar systems similar to ours also exist and also eventually I do want to have a sense of whether life could exist on other planets.”