Isabel Hawkins

Isabel Hawkins, PhD, is a bilingual and bicultural astronomer and science educator from Córdoba, Argentina, with a doctorate in astrophysics from UCLA. Since 2009, Isabel has been an Astronomer & Senior Scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, California, the pioneering interactive museum of science, art, and human perception. Prior to joining the Exploratorium, she worked as a Senior Space Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory for 20 years, conducting research and helping to build instrumentation for several NASA satellite research projects. As a Fulbright US Global Scholar in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Guatemala, and Peru (2018–2022), Isabel conducted crosscultural research on traditional knowledge of the Pleiades star cluster in collaboration with Indigenous knowledge holders. Minor planet 27120, discovered in 1998, is named after her, and she is recipient of the prestigious Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for her contributions to the popularization of astronomy.