Amy Mainzer

Amy Mainzer (born January 2, 1974) is an American astronomer, specializing in astrophysical instrumentation and infrared astronomy. She is the Deputy Project Scientist for the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and the Principal Investigator for the NEOWISE project to study minor planets and the proposed Near Earth Object Camera space telescope mission.

Mainzer received a B.Sc. in Physics from Stanford University with honors (1996) and holds an M.Sc. in Astronomy from California Institute of Technology (2000) and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles (2003).

Her research interests include asteroids, brown dwarfs, planetary atmospheres, debris disks, star formation, and the design and construction of new ground- and space-based instrumentation.

Asteroid (234750) Amymainzer was named after her.

She has appeared a number of times in the History Channel series The Universe. She also appears in the documentary featurette "Stellar Cartography: On Earth" included on the Star Trek Generations home video release (March 2010). Amy makes an appearance in the 2016 Documentary about the life of Leonard Nimoy and the effect of Spock on popular culture called "For the Love of Spock", directed by Leonard's son Adam Nimoy. She also serves as the science consultant and host for the live-action interstitials on the PBS Kids series Ready Jet Go! as of Winter 2016.