De Pater was introduced to astronomy in high school when a family friend gave her an astronomy textbook and introduced her to someone in Utrecht so she could learn about the field.[1] She earned her Ph.D. from
Leiden University (1980) while working on radio emissions from Jupiter.[2] de Pater is a professor of astronomy, earth and planetary science from the University of California, Berkeley, and served as the chair of the Astronomy Department.[3]
far-seeing discoveries and cutting-edge visions of the dynamic outer solar system made from Earth at nearly every wavelength of light
Research
De Pater's research centers on observations of the large planets and their rings and satellites (
Jupiter,[5][6]Neptune,[7]Titan,[8] and
Uranus[9]) using
adaptive optics and radio observations. When the
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in 1994, she led the campaign to observe the impact using the Keck Telescope[10][11][12][13] and the animations of the impact of the comet are readily available to the general public.[14] Her research on the rearrangement of the rings of Uranus indicated they are dynamic feature of the planet[15][16][17] and she revealed the presence of new dust belts surrounding Uranus.[18]
The rings of Uranus are shown here captured almost exactly edge-on to Earth. The observations were done by Daphne Stam (TU Delft) and Markus Hartung (ESO, Chile), in close collaboration with Mark Showalter (SETI) and Imke de Pater (UC Berkeley and TU Delft).
Selected publications
de Pater, Imke; Lissauer, Jack J. (2015). Planetary Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9781316195697.
de Pater, Imke; Lissauer, Jack J. (16 September 2013). Fundamental Planetary Science: Physics, Chemistry and Habitability. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN978-0521853309.
^"Science podcast". Science Podcasts (Podcast). American Association for the Advancement of Science. August 24, 2007. Event occurs at 11:22. Retrieved July 28, 2021.