Dr. Kimberly A Engle

Astrophysics Science Division
NASA/GSFC
Code 660.2, Science Operations and Data Management Office
Greenbelt, MD 20771

tel: 301-286-3016
fax: 301-286-1753
e-mail: Kimberly.Engle@nasa.gov

Present Position

Computer Systems Administrator, Astrophysicist
ADNET

Brief Bio

Dr. Kimberly Engle received her B.S. in Astronomy from Case Western Reserve University in 1990. During her time at Case she worked in a biochemistry lab, assisted astronomy professors N. Sanduleak and C. B. Stephenson with their Northern Sky Survey by producing finders charts, and performed research in cosmic string theory in Dr. Robert Brown's group. After a brief stay at Pennsylvania State University which included an observing run to Cerro Tololo to observe planetary nebulae and study these objects as distance scale indicators, she began graduate school at Drexel University.

Kimberly's studies of Physics and Astrophysics with Dr. Steve McMillan culminated with a PhD thesis in 1999 entitled "Numerical Simulations of Globular Clusters." Because her thesis required a great deal of computing power, in grad school she began learning about specialized methods for writing "fast" code (i.e. programming using parallel computing languages) and for creating hardware with built-in code. This research imparted Kim with computer experience on a variety of operating systems and using many computer languages and software packages, both scientific and general.

This combined science and computer experience led to her position in the Astrophysics Science Division as a computer systems administrator and part-time astrophysicist. Her current research involves examining the infrared properties BAT-selected AGN.

Educational Background

PhD Physics, Drexel University, "Numerical Simulations of Globular Clusters", 1999

M.S. Physics, Drexel University, 1994

B.S. Astronomy, Case Western Reserve University 1990

Research Interests

Active Galactic Nuclei: x-rays, infrared

Black Holes

Supernovae

Current Projects

- Studying infrared spectra of BAT-selected AGN using proprietary Spitzer data

- Primary computer network and security administrator

- Primary ASD Patchlink administrator

- Alternate Computer Security Officer for ASD (Code 660)

Selected Publications

"Atmospheric Reflection during an Anomalous Low State of Hercules X-1", 2000, ApJ 554:352. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001ApJ...554..352S

Dynamical evolution of star clusters: confrontation of theory and observations: proceedings of the 174th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union, held in Tokyo, Japan, August 22-25, 1995. Edited by Piet Hut and Junichiro Makino. Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, p. 379. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1996IAUS..174..379M

"Planetary Nebulae as Distance Scale Indicators", Ciardullo, R. B. & Engle, K.A. 1991, AAS Meeting 177.

"General two-harmonic cosmic string", 1990, Physical Review D, D41, 1775. http://prola.aps.org/abstract/PRD/v41/i6/p1775_1