Profile Details
As the head of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope mission office, Kristen B. W. McQuinn leads the institute’s Roman Space Telescope science operations, which include the mission’s planning and scheduling system, the data processing system for the Wide Field Instrument, and the data archive and science platform. Before she joined the institute in 2024, she served as an assistant professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
In 2023, Dr. McQuinn received the Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for the Advancement of Science to study how the smallest galaxies may provide some of the biggest clues to understanding galaxy formation and cosmology. In the same year, she was named a Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Earlier in her career, Dr. McQuinn served at several institutions, including as a research faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, a research associate at the Minnesota Institute for Astrophysics, and an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Earlier, she was a teaching fellow and research assistant at Boston University. Prior to her work in academia, she was a technology and management consultant who focused on integrating new technologies, software, and processes for clients at two companies, the Environmental Resources Management in San Francisco, California and Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Accenture in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. McQuinn is a previous member of the Roman Space Telescope Advisory Committee, which advises the institute’s director about strategies and priorities for Roman’s science program and operations to maximize the observatory’s scientific productivity. In 2023, she served on the Hubble Space Telescope’s proposal review executive committee and sat on the panel for the National Science Foundation’s proposal review. In 2021, she sat on the James Webb Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Observatory’s proposal committees.
She has been regularly awarded time to observe with Hubble since 2007, and has also been granted time to observe with Webb and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, among others. Dr. McQuinn is an active researcher who has focused her studies on the formation and evolution of low-mass galaxies, near-field cosmology illuminated by the faint-end of the galaxy luminosity function, the baryon cycle in galaxies, resolved stellar populations and galaxy archeology, star formation and chemical enrichment histories, and the extragalactic distance scale. In addition to regularly publishing her findings, she also has also given scientific talks at many international conferences and workshops. Throughout her career, Dr. McQuinn has also served as an active mentor to post-doctoral researchers, and graduate and undergraduate students.
Education:
PhD in Astrophysics, University of Minnesota
MS in Astrophysics, Boston University
BS in Mechanical Engineering, Lehigh University
Research Topics: Formation and Evolution of Low-Mass Galaxies; Near-Field Cosmology Probed by the Faint-End of the Galaxy Luminosity Function; the Baryon Cycle in Galaxies; Resolved Stellar Populations and Galaxy Archeology; Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment Histories; the Extragalactic Distance Scale.
Professional Website: Kristen B. Wingfield McQuinn
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5538-2614