University of Central Florida

While at U. Md., Dr. Fernandez completed a doctoral thesis on the thermophysical properties of cometary nuclei. Dr. Fernandez then moved to the University of Hawaii to take up a postdoctoral position at the Institute for Astronomy, where he used the excellent telescope facilities on Mauna Kea to study the composition, structure, evolution, and interrelationships of comets, asteroids, and outer Solar System objects. He came to UCF in 2005.

Dr. Fernandez's research area is astronomy, specifically planetary science with an emphasis on the small bodies of the Solar System. The overarching goal is to understand the thermal, physical, and compositional environment at the time of the Solar System's creation. Comets are the most observable remnants leftover from that era, and so hold great promise in giving clues about the young Solar System, but to fully unlock their secrets requires us to understand the evolutionary processes that they have suffered in the intervening 4.6 billion years. Some of Dr. Fernandez's projects involve the use of the Spitzer Space Telescope, one of NASA's Great Observatories. He also uses telescope in Arizona, Hawaii, and Chile to study active comets, dormant comets, near-Earth asteroids, and outer Solar System objects.