Alumni Highlight

Gregory Villar III

Gregory was a physics major who graduated from Cal Poly Pomona in 2009 and is currently working at JPL. He has done a number of Astronomy research projects as an undergraduate. He first participated in a research project with Dr. Joe Carson of JPL and Dr. Alex Rudolph of CPP searching for Brown Dwarfs around nearby stars using the Palomar 200” telescope near San Diego, California. He subsequently worked with Dr. Raghvendra Sahai at JPL and Dr. Mark Morris of UCLA, developing a morphological classification scheme on young planetary nebulae, one possible end state of a star. Gregory is currently 's position at JPL is Systems Engineer for the Mars 2020 Mission.

Read more about Gregory's astronomy research

Gregory says: "After obtaining my PhD in astronomy, I would like to continue conducting research. I am definitely open to doing post-doctoral work anywhere, even abroad, in order to experience a new environment. One day, after contributing a great deal to the astronomical community, I would love to continue my research and also teach by obtaining a professorship at a University. Through teaching, I can continue to share my love and knowledge of Physics and Astronomy to younger generations."

Watch the NASA video "Student of the Stars" featuring Gregory Villar III.

Gregory Villar LinkedIn Profile

Updated March 2016