Kelsey Hargrove

Research Focus: Planetary Science

Email: khargrove@physics.ucf.edu

Phone: 321-298-2163

Nature Publication April 29, 2010

Research Background

Kelsey has worked under Dr. Campins for over three years, studying asteroids and other small bodies in the solar system. She has used the Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii on several occations to collect data for various projects. In 2008 she spent the summer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias in Tenerife, Spain for a project to characterize Near Earth Asteroids. There, Kelsey used the Telescopio Natzionale Galileo for two seperate observing runs to collect visible spectroscopy data. More recently, she took first place in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics category at the Students for Undergraduate Research Excelence (SURE) conference held at the University of Central Florida. Her winning poster "The First Detection of Ice and Organic Compounds on an Asteroid: A Possible Link to the Origin of Earth's Water" was based on research that was published in Nature April 29, 2010.

In her spare time, Kelsey enjoys photography, cooking, video games, graphic design and collecting/repairing vintage costume jewelry and vintage hand bags. She loves animals and currently owns a fawn Great Dane; though someday she hopes to own another Great Dane, a Boston Terrier, and a Welsh Corgi.