Nina Bonaventura, Ph. D.

James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) Team Member

• Uncovered an unexpected fueling mechanism and hidden evolutionary sequence amongst a class of accreting supermassive black holes (SMBHs) through the physical, statistical, and computer vision analysis of their host galaxies’ emission in JWST Near-infrared Camera (NIRCam) imagery (Bonaventura et al. 2024; Bonaventura et al., in prep).
• Led and executed team effort to scientifically design, technically optimize, and ultimately procure the JWST Near-infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) observations (Bonaventura et al. 2023) required to complete a major galaxy observation campaign, the Systematic Mid-infrared Instrument (MIRI) Legacy Extragalactic Survey (SMILES) (Alberts et al. 2024).

As an astrophysics post-doctoral researcher at the Cosmic Dawn Center (DAWN), I worked alongside Dr. Peter Jakobsen on the scientific optimization of astronomical data to be obtained by the premier Near-infrared Spectrometer (NIRSpec) onboard NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as a member of the JWST/NIRSpec Guaranteed Time Observer (GTO) Team, JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) collaboration, and as an ESA Contractor (through DAWN) on the JWST/NIRSpec Commissioning Analysis Team.

Participated in extensive scientific and technical preparations for JWST/NIRSpec science with JADES, in anticipation of the long-awaited NASA launch of JWST on December 25, 2021:

• Independently solved a long- and outstanding multi-object spectroscopic (MOS) observation optimization problem with a novel analytical algorithm (Bonaventura et al. 2023) that helped achieve numerous ground-breaking JADES science discoveries (e.g., Curtis-Lake et al. 2023), and dramatically enhanced the capabilities of the associated eMPT software (now serving as a full alternative to the NASA/STScI APT MSA Planning Tool, https://www.stsci.edu/jwst/science-planning/tools-from-the-community).
• Co-led the design, preparation, and submission of the NIRSpec Micro-shutter Array (MSA) spectral observation plans for the ambitious JADES DEEP and MEDIUM science programs.
• Formalized the JADES scientific research plan and observation strategy to study stellar populations and quenching mechanisms in high-redshift passive galaxies.
• Served as a NIRSpec Commissioning Analyst in the NASA Flight Control Room at STScI during the JWST commissioning phase in advance of science operations, performing “quick look” observation analysis, monitoring telescope physical functioning, and verifying raw NIRSpec commissioning data in real time (Rigby et al. 2023, Boeker et al. 2023)
• Prepared formal NASA/JWST NIRSpec Commissioning Analysis Procedures to test the NIRSpec MSA performance that relied on personally developed novel algorithms for the NIRSpec GTO Team (Bonaventura et al. 2023, Boeker et al. 2023)
• Successfully completed the ESA JWST Master Class training and certification, which ensures a working knowledge of all of the JWST instruments and modes of observation.

Led a six-person team of non-astronomer physicists and data scientists in the analysis of optical galaxy emission in real and simulated photometric images, which enabled the novel application of machine learning methods (Convolutional Neural Networks) to accurately and reliably extract dark matter mass and distribution in galaxies (de los Rios et al. 2023).

Between the completion of my Master's and Doctoral degrees in Astrophysics, I worked as a Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) Data Specialist in support of the NASA Chandra mission on the Science Data Systems team at NASA's CXC.

• Formally developed, tested, and documented the Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) imaging, spectroscopic, and timing analysis software for the Chandra user community, including personal contributions to the scientific processing of spectral and time-series X-ray observations using Python.
• Served as primary writer of the award-winning scientific documentation for the CXC Chandra Source Catalog (CSC) (NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award, Smithsonian Cash Award), as well as the CXC Sherpa spectral fitting package and Virtual Astronomical Observatory Iris SED analysis tool.
• Conducted scientific research involving the characterization of X-ray emission of group galaxies through modeling of their surface brightness distributions and thermal X-ray emission in Chandra and XMM- Newton X-ray imaging observations (Wolter et al. 2010).