Dr. Knicole Colón is an Astrophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. She is currently the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Operations Project Scientist and the Project Scientist for the Pandora SmallSat mission. She previously served as the Deputy Operations Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Deputy Project Scientist for Exoplanet Science for JWST, and the Project Scientist for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Her research involves the discovery and characterization of extrasolar planets (or exoplanets), which are planets that orbit distant stars. She uses a variety of optical and infrared telescopes to study exoplanets, including HST, JWST, and TESS. Her research focuses on studying “extreme” exoplanets that are unlike any planets in our solar system, to learn about the composition of their atmospheres and gain insight into how they formed and evolved.

2012, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, Ph.D., Astronomy 

2009, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, M.S., Astronomy

2007, The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, B.S., Physics; Minor, Mathematics; magna cum laude

2023, NASA Group Achievement Award: ExoExplorers Team

2023, NASA Group Achievement Award: JWST Project Science Team 

2022, NASA Agency Honor Award: Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal

2022, Robert H. Goddard Honor Award: Mentoring

2020, NASA GSFC Astrophysics Science Division Peer Award

2019, NASA Silver Achievement Medal: TESS Project Team 

2019, NASA Group Achievement Award: Astrophysics Large Mission Study Team (LUVOIR) 

2017, NASA Group Achievement Award: K2 Campaign 9 Microlensing Science Experiment

2016, NASA Ames Honor Award: K2 Mission Guest Observer Office Team