About the Planetarium

Our Staff
Dr. Erin Hicks, Associate Professor of Astronomy, has been Director of the UAA Planetarium and Visualization Theater since Fall 2013. In addition to an enthusiasm for sharing astronomy with her students and the general public, Dr. Hicks is a dedicated supporter of encouraging an increase in the diversity of students pursuing careers in the sciences. Dr. Hicks' research focuses on the role of supermassive black holes in galaxy evolution and makes use of data obtained on world class telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope, Keck Observatory, ESO’s Very Large Telescopes, and the Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Dr. Hicks leads UAA's Galaxy Evolution Group in which undergraduate students engage in scientifically meaningful research that contributes to our understanding of the growth of supermassive black holes and their influence on the evolution of the galaxies in which they reside.