Samantha Hoffmann
Principal Staff Scientist at Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Summary
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Senior🎓
Top SchoolSamantha Hoffmann is a Principal Staff Scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute with eight years of professional experience calibrating and monitoring Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and leading the community help desk for DrizzlePac/AstroDrizzle. She combines hands-on expertise in image calibration, photometry, statistical analysis, and both IDL and Python coding with a research program that uses Cepheid variables to refine local measurements of the universe’s expansion. Samantha regularly presents her work internationally and contributes practical, user-focused resources—such as a detailed notebook on image sampling optimization for the spacetelescope/notebooks repository—that help astronomers produce higher-quality science-ready images. She has a PhD in Physics and a track record mentoring scientists in data reduction and analysis, and she actively advances diversity and inclusion within the astronomical community. An uncommon strength is her dual role as both an instrument health steward and a direct contributor to cosmological distance-scale science, bridging engineering and discovery.
8 years of coding experience
9 years of employment as a software developer
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Physics, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Physics at Texas A&M UniversityHigh School Diploma, High School Diploma at Stony Point High SchoolBachelor's degree, Physics; Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude, Bachelor's degree, Physics; Mathematics, Magna Cum Laude at Texas Lutheran University
Github Skills (3)
astronomy10
notebook10
python8
Programming languages (3)
Github contributions (5)
spacetelescope/notebooks
Dec 2018 - May 2021
Curated Notebooks from STScI
Role in this project:
Technical Writer
Technical WriterContributions:24 commits, 12 PRs, 19 comments in 2 years 5 months
Contributions summary:Samantha's contribution focuses on adding a comprehensive notebook demonstrating optimization of image sampling techniques within the DrizzlePac package. This involves providing background information, code examples, and explanations of the parameters. Their work directly supports users in understanding and improving the quality of images.
maststscinotebooksastronomyspacex
samanthalh/notebooks
Dec 2018 - May 2021
Curated Notebooks from STScI
Contributions:15 pushes, 13 branches in 2 years 5 months
stscinotebooks
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