Department of Physics and Astronomy Welcomes First Postdoctoral Fellow, Dr. Breanna Binder

Dr. Breanna Binder, a former research associate at the University of Washington and a lecturer at the University of Washington, Bothell, has accepted an offer to join Cal Poly Pomona Department of Physics and Astronomy, starting in Fall 2016, and a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow.

Dr. Binder received her PhD in Astronomy from the University of Washington in 2013 under the supervision of Professors Scott Anderson and Benjamin Williams. She comes to Cal Poly Pomona after three years of postdoctoral experience and teaching introductory physics and astronomy at the University of Washington. Her primary research interests surround the formation, evolution, and end states of massive binary stars, with a particular focus on high-energy observations of X-ray binaries. At Cal Poly Pomona, she will be working with Assistant Professor Matt Povich and his students studying star formation in the Milky Way.

In addition to teaching introductory physics and astronomy at the college level, Dr. Binder spent four years teaching astronomy and developing science educational materials at the Robinson Center for Young Scholars, a program on the University of Washington campus for highly capable elementary and middle school students. She has been extensively involved with astronomy outreach projects, and is looking forward to continuing to bring physics and astronomy to the larger Cal Poly Pomona community.

Dr. Binder is moving to southern California with her husband Eddie Schwieterman, a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at UC Riverside. She also enjoys running, cooking, and playing with her dog.