Melania Nynka

Melania (Mel) earned her B.A from Barnard College and her Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the Columbia Astrophysics Lab at Columbia University. Afterwards, she completed postdoctoral research fellowships at the University of California, Irvine and McGil University. She was heavily involved in the design, construction and calibration for the Wolter-I X-ray optics currently in the NuSTAR telescope, and won several NASA group awards for her work. The majority of her research focuses on pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) and quiescent or low-accreting supermassive black holes including the Sgr A*. She joined the Chandra HETG group in 2018.