People of the Dome

Jason E. Ybarra is a Teaching Assistant Professor and serves as the Director of the WVU Planetarium and Observatory. Dr. Ybarra’s research interests include galactic star formation, protostellar outflows, physics education, and the history of astronomy. They earned a Ph.D. from the University of Florida where, as a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program (GSRP) fellow and a NASA Florida Space Grant Consortium fellow, they studied how star formation progresses through the Rosette Molecular Cloud by analyzing the stellar and gas content of embedded clusters. They also earned a M.S. in Physics from San Francisco State University, where as a graduate student, they co-discovered the first observational evidence of a precessing jet carving out a protostellar envelope. Dr. Ybarra's postdoctoral work at the Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM-Ensenada) involved characterizing mid-infrared emission from star-forming regions, studying protostellar outflow interactions, and developing astro-statistical methods. They also served as the editor of the "This Month in Astronomical History" column (2019-2020) for the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society (HAD-AAS), as well as being a frequent contributing author.

Dr. Ybarra enjoys teaching and mentoring students. Previous to WVU, they taught physics and astronomy at Davidson College, Bridgewater College, and California State University, Sacramento. They have also taught physics to monastics at the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Karnataka, India through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. 

When not teaching or doing science, they write poetry, paint, camp in the woods, and spend time with their wife and cats.

Jackson has just recently joined the WVU Planetarium in January and looks forward to sharing his love of astronomy with others. He previously served as a teaching assistant for the lab portion of Astronomy 106. His research interests are in pulsars, which are rapidly rotating stars, and the detection of gravitational waves, having joined the NANOGrav collaboration. Astronomers have recently used the predictability of pulsars to measure gravitational waves sloshing around our galaxy! His favorite planet is Jupiter because it's bigger than all other planets in our solar system combined. Jackson has Bachelor of Science degrees in Physics, Astronomy, and Math from Indiana University.

Jordan O'Kelley is currently a first-year PhD student studying astronomy at West Virginia University. He graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, in 2024 with a Bachelor's in Physics. Currently, he works as a planetarium assistant and a teaching assistant for the university. His past research experience is in star formation and astrochemical simulations, and his current research interests are gravitational wave astronomy and pulsar timing arrays. Jordan is also a neurodiverse student and an advocate for the rights of gifted and disabled students in the education system.

Susie works with Dr. Ybarra developing planetarium outreach materials and also volunteers when she has the chance. She has been happily giving shows since January 2023. Her favorite part of each show is the question period at the end—many people ask incredible questions! As a graduate student, Susie works on fast radio burst (FRB) research. She is currently searching for FRBs from the local starburst galaxy M82. Because of the conditions in starburst galaxies, astronomers expect them to contain a large number of magnetars. A confirmed burst from M82 would lend credence to the magnetar hypothesis for FRB origins. Susie earned her Bachelor’s degree in Physics with Astronomy Emphasis from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN.

Dr. Joe Glaser serves as the Scientific Computations Specialist for NANOGrav and the Center of Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. He volunteers a portion of his time to the WVU Planetarium and Observatory, fostering a keen interest in scientific visualization, educational show production, and increasing the public's access to our facilities. His research expertise lies in the fields of planetary formation and exoplanetary sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Physics from Drexel University in 2020, studying the dynamical evolution of planetary systems within Stellar Open Clusters. He serves on a rotation of multiple scientific and DEI working groups with colleagues across the globe. Being a product of both, he strongly supports initiatives focused on undergraduate research and “open source” projects.

Coordinates strategic communications, public relations, digital, traditional and social media including earned, owned and paid media for the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Member of the NANOGrav Collaboration.