My name is Junellie Gonzalez Quiles (she/her/ella), and I am a current NSF Graduate Research Fellow at Johns Hopkins University pursuing my PhD in Earth & Planetary Sciences. I pursued my Bachelor of Science in Astronomy at University of Maryland, College Park and during my time as an undergraduate student, I participated in various research opportunities resulting in a total of six internships by the time I graduated. These included: NASA GSFC, Harvard University, Cornell University, Carnegie Institution for Science, among others. After graduating with my undergraduate degree, I worked at NASA GSFC as a research assistant for a year and a half before starting my PhD in Fall 2020.

My current research focuses on studying exoplanets from the geological and planetary perspective. I model geochemical cycles and the effect of plate tectonics on exoplanets to understand how their atmospheric composition evolves over time and its effect on planetary climate. To be able to do so, I bring in my skills acquired doing high pressure and temperature experiments to study minerals in Earth and Super-Earth interior conditions, modeling of the habitable zones of exoplanets and planet formation theory to my research. I am interested in providing the geological context for the atmospheric observations we can currently obtain with current telescopes such as JWST and Hubble.

Since 2014, I have acquired valuable research skills including laboratory experience, theoretical and computational modeling experience. I have a wide range of programming experience including Python, MATLAB and IDL languages. But in addition to all these research skills, I have also acquired a wealth of skills by engaging in various extracurricular activities. During my PhD, I had the incredible opportunity to serve as the Graduate Student President for the Dept. of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Hopkins and as the Outreach & Social Media Team Lead at the Women+ of Color Project for the past two years. Currently, I am the coordinator for the League of Underrepresented Minoritized Astronomers (LUMA), which is a peer mentoring community for Black, Indigenous and Latinx women in astronomy, physics and related fields. As coordinator, I have acquired leadership, project management, website and media skills, all relevant to thrive in my career. I am deeply passionate about creating equitable and inclusive spaces in my field by engaging in diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) work. I currently serve as the Habitable Worlds Observatory Emerging Leader for the Inclusion Sub-Working Group, focused on implementing an inclusion plan for NASA’s next Flagship mission.

In early 2023, I became a writer for Astrobites, a daily astrophysical literature journal written by graduate students. I have published a variety of articles both on astrophysical literature and on relevant topics pertaining to DEIA and beyond. I have participated in multiple media trainings and won several public speaking awards in my career. I also have served as an interviewer on behalf of NASA for TESS and Hubble Scientific discoveries in both Spanish and English.

If you're interested in working together, please message me!

Socials:

• Personal Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram: @spacejunellie
• Threads: @spacejunellie
• BlueSky: @spacejunellie.bsky.social
• Facebook

ORCID: 0000-0002-9032-8530