Susanna Kohler Promoted to Communications Manager & Press Officer
PRESS RELEASE
** Contact details appear below. **
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) is making some staff changes to strengthen its internal and external communications efforts in the wake of longtime AAS Press Officer Rick Fienberg’s imminent retirement. Chief among them, Susanna Kohler, founding Editor of AAS Nova, will be promoted to Communications Manager and, along with other responsibilities, will succeed Rick as Press Officer.
AAS Nova features research highlights from the AAS journals, and Susanna will continue to serve as Editor for the time being. To support her in her expanded role, the Society is recruiting a Communications Specialist. This new hire will take on increasing responsibility for AAS Nova, will help organize and host press conferences at AAS meetings, and will contribute to the Society’s communications efforts in other ways.
Susanna Kohler received her BS in physics from University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2008 and her PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 2014. For her doctoral dissertation she studied and modeled extremely energetic outflows from supermassive black holes at the centers of active galaxies.
Susanna has conducted outreach in astronomy and physics for more than a decade, both as a public speaker and as a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in a variety of online publications. She is an administrator and former author for Astrobites and a founding organizer of ComSciCon, a growing series of science communication workshops for graduate students. She joined the AAS staff in 2015.
In her new capacity Susanna will report to Hua Liu, AAS Director of Communications & Marketing, and play a major role in both member-facing and public-facing Society communications. In addition to overseeing the Communications Specialist, she will mentor the AAS Media Fellow, a graduate student spending one day a week with the AAS to gain experience in science writing and media relations.
Contacts
Image:
https://aas.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/Susanna_Kohler_900x1255.jpg
Susanna Kohler, current Editor of AAS Nova and soon-to-be Communications Manager and Press Officer. Credit: Photo by François Hébert, courtesy Susanna Kohler.
The American Astronomical Society (AAS), established in 1899, is the major organization of professional astronomers in North America. Its membership (approx. 8,000) also includes physicists, mathematicians, geologists, engineers, and others whose research interests lie within the broad spectrum of subjects now comprising the astronomical sciences. The mission of the AAS is to enhance and share humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe, which it achieves through publishing, meeting organization, science advocacy, education and outreach, and training and professional development.