Paula Szkody

Who is Paula Szkody?

Dr. Paula Szkody is a professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle. She specializes in cataclysmic variable stars, which are binary star systems that periodically undergo energetic outbursts. She is an active participant in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey searching for new dwarf novae and has worked with the XTE, ASCA, ROSAT, IUE, HST, EUVE and XMM-Newton space missions.

In 2005 she became the editor-in-chief of the astronomical journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 1978, she was awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. She is also very active in professional-amateur collaboration, especially in conjunction with the American Association of Variable Star Observers, for whom she has served both as an officer on the board and, for the term 2007-08, as President of the organization.