Steven Silverberg earned his Bachelor of Science in astrophysics from Rice University in 2009, and completed his doctorate in physics from the University of Oklahoma in 2019, under the direction of Dr. John Wisniewski and Dr. Marc Kuchner. For the past several years he has worked as a postdoctoral fellow with the Chandra X-ray Center, first at MIT and then at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He has been passionate about the stars since his father passed on his copy of H. A. Rey’s The Stars: A New Way to See Them when he was five, and has spent a decent portion of his life focused on them.
Steven’s research interests have generally centered on low-mass stars in various ways. His undergraduate research focused on measuring the magnetic fields that produce stellar flares, while his Masters thesis was on understanding the properties of stellar flares on M dwarfs with continuous observation and his doctorate focused on identifying low-mass stars with circumstellar material–gas and dust that could form planets (or be generated from planet formation). Since then, his research has focused on understanding the properties of low-mass young stellar objects–stars still in the process of forming–including incorporating monitoring data of a few young stellar objects from contributors from AAVSO.
His other major research focus and passion has been participatory science. For the past ten years he has served as the Principal Investigator for Disk Detective, a Zooniverse project to identify stars with circumstellar disks in full-sky survey data with the aid of tens of thousands of people with interest in space and Internet connections around the world. He is proud to count many contributors to Disk Detective among his closest friends, and has co-authored several papers with citizen scientists. He has also contributed to several other Zooniverse projects, and helping introduce participatory science to a broad swath of people through multiple venues, including talks to various astronomy groups, interactive exhibits, and a feature on the PBS Kids series SciGirls.
When he is not working on astronomy, Steven enjoys cooking, writing, and baseball. He’s excited to bring his experiences with astronomy and working with participatory science to bear in managing AAVSO’s educational efforts.