NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
As a kid, I always loved science. However, it was not until my parents made a huge effort to takemy siblings and me to Orlando, FL that I really realized my passion for space. We grew up in a very humble home and money was not available that often to make these kind of expenses. I was very excited because I wanted to go to Disney World, but then my parents said we were going to a place that was much better and they took me to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. My life completely changed at that moment. That was the first time I said I wanted to work for NASA. I was 6 years old!
My bio:
Dr. Yaireska (Yari) Collado-Vega’s is originally from Ponce, Puerto Rico. She received her PhD in Space Physics from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC with honors in January 2013. She received both her BS and MS in theoretical physics from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, in 2004 and 2007, respectively, and a second MS from The Catholic University of America on May 2010. Collado-Vega's research focuses on the solar wind interaction with the Earth's magnetic environment. She is part of the Community Coordinated Modeling Center (CCMC) team, is a senior space weather forecaster and the lead of the space weather forecaster team. She conducts education and public outreach for the CCMC team and the Heliophysics Science Division including social media events and live tv/radio interviews. She is the space weather subject matter expert and CCMC representative on the NASA Space Science Education Consortium. She has also been a Co-Investigator in several internal funded proposals on a data mining tool development and has presented on many international and national scientific conferences. She has received many awards and her work was showcased on the first Women of Goddard book. She was also one of the main scientists for the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse education public outreach and a co-host of the NASA TV Live broadcast at The College of Charleston in South Carolina. She has been part of the NASA family for 14 years.