FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Amber Straughn came to the University of Arkansas determined to study astronomy, inspired by years of watching the brilliant stars visible in the dark night sky above her father’s watermelon farm in Bee Branch, Arkansas. She pursued honors studies in the Department of Physics in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, where she was part of an undergraduate team project that set her path toward NASA.

Straughn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, magna cum laude, at the U of A in 2002 and completed her master’s and doctoral degrees in physics at Arizona State. Today she is deputy project scientist for James Webb Space Telescope Science Communications and associate director for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Astrophysics Science Division.

To see more recent University of Arkansas videos, visit shorttakes.uark.edu.