Deidre A. Hunter is an American astronomer at Lowell Observatory. Her primary research area is tiny irregular galaxies â their origins, evolution and star-formation properties. She uses many parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, and includes spectroscopy in her approach.
Hunter's BS is from the University of Arizona (1975) and her PhD in astronomy from the University of Illinois in 1982. Her thesis was on the star-forming properties of irregular galaxies. It earned an award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Hunter was a postdoctoral fellow at Kitt Peak National Observatory, after which she spent two years at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington as the Richard B. Roberts fellow. She joined Lowell Observatory science staff in 1986 as well as the Hubble Space Telescope WFPC camera team. She mainly studies the behavior or tiny galaxies as Lowell's Deputy Director of Science. Hunter founded LowellâÂÂs Navajo-Jopi Astronomy Outreach Program and ran it for 25 years, sharing astronomy with 4th-8th grade Navajo and Hopi teachers and their classes.