Abigail Sheffer Email & Phone Number

Held positions of increasing responsibility in science policy and communication over more than twelve years, contributing to and managing major projects and publications for the National Academy of Sciences.Major activities and publications managed:o Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s. Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey (Astro2020), co-study director. Managed 14 panels of ~150 expert volunteers and 9 staff.o Committee on Solar and Space Physics, study director, 2013 - Present. Managing the standing advisory committee and producing short reports such as Agile Responses to Short-Notice Rideshare Opportunities for the NASA Heliophysics Division, 2020.o Strategic Investments in Instrumentation and Facilities for Extraterrestrial Sample Curation and Analysis, 2019 o Open Source Software Policy Options for NASA Earth and Space Sciences, 2018o Assessment of the National Science Foundation’s 2015 Geospace Portfolio Review, 2017o Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking Inside the Box, 2016o Landsat and Beyond: Sustaining and Enhancing the Nation’s Land Imaging Program, 2013

Washington, Dc

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Research Associate with the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Space Studies Board

Taught a preparatory class for the Graduate Record Examination. Marketed Kaplan's GRE classes to over 250 students.Completed five-week teacher training course with highest marks.

Taught introductory planetary science topics to 160 students per semester. Designed interactive critical thinking activities.Tutored students individually and in small groups.

Conducted multi-anvil high-pressure experiments to investigate ordinary chondrites as analogs for the Martian mantle. Constructed sample capsules, designed sample mixtures, and analyzed results using electron microscopy. Presented results in talks at the NASA Johnson Space Center and at the 2001 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Performed gas-mixing furnace and piston-cylinder high-pressure experiments to investigate the formation of Nakhlite Martian meteorites. Designed a new sample holder for the gas-mixing furnaces, created olivine of Martian composition with the piston-cylinder, and analyzed results using electron microscopy. Presented results in talks at the Carnegie Institute and at the 2000 Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.

Doctorate, Planetary Science, Geoscience Minor

Dissertation: Chemical Reduction of Silicates by Meteorite Impacts and Lightning Strikes

Bachelor Of Arts, Geosciences

Activities and Societies: Princeton University Band Campus ClubSenior Thesis: Formation of Symplectic Lamellae in Nakhlite Martian.