DR. ISABEL HAWKINS
PROJECT DIRECTOR
|EXPLORATORIUM|
San Francisco, California, United States
Isabel Hawkins is a bilingual (Spanish/English) and bicultural Latina woman born and raised in Córdoba, Argentina. Dr. Hawkins received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in astronomy at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1986. Her doctoral dissertation measured carbon isotope abundances in the interstellar medium towards bright stars near the Sun, particularly in the Pleiades star cluster, to understand the chemical evolution of the Milky Way.
She spent twenty years as a researcher at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory, working on various NASA satellites. She joined the Exploratorium museum in 2009 to work on cultural astronomy projects, including live webcasts in English and Spanish from Chichen Itza, Yucatán, México about Maya astronomy and a website featuring the astronomical foundations of Polynesian non-instrument navigation.
Dr. Hawkins is a consultant to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, developing webpages and online resources for educators on Maya astronomy and Inka engineering. Isabel has published more than 100 articles about astronomy and science education. She has forged strong cross-cultural collaborations with indigenous knowledge holders, educators, and scientists worldwide to enhance participation by diverse communities in science.
Her interests include competitive Latin dance and the study of indigenous languages.
