Ashley Zauderer-VanderLey, Ph.D.
Ashley Zauderer-VanderLey, Ph.D.
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Dr. Ashley (Zauderer) VanderLey is Senior Advisor for Facilities in the Division of Astronomical Sciences, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). An employee of NSF since 2017, Dr. VanderLey supports facilities across the Division including radio, optical and infrared telescopes. She also supports facilities by representing the scientific interests for the protection and use of the electromagnetic spectrum both within the United States and internationally, including the impact of optical reflections from satellites on ground-based facilities. She serves as U.S. Head of Delegation on behalf of the State Department to the Radio Astronomy Working Party (7D) of the International Telecommunication Union. Dr. VanderLey completed her bachelor’s degree in Astrophysics from Agnes Scott College and her master's and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Maryland, College Park. Upon completion of her Ph.D., she was a Research Fellow and an NSF Astronomy & Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow in the Berger Time Domain Group at Harvard University. Dr. VanderLey’s research specialization is observational radio astronomy, including techniques for atmospheric correction and the study of explosive astrophysical transients including supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and tidal disruption events of stars around supermassive black holes. Dr. VanderLey has also worked in private philanthropy, leading the Mathematical and Physical Sciences Department at the John Templeton Foundation between 2014 and 2017. She currently serves as a Trustee of the American Astronomical Society.