Elisa Quintana

Elisa Victoria Quintana
Born	1973 (age 43–44)
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	Astrophysicist NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Alma mater	University of Michigan, Grossmont College, University of California at San Diego
Doctoral advisor	Fred Adams
Known for	Astronomy

Elisa Victoria Quintana is a scientist working in the field of astronomy and planetary science at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Her research focuses the detection and characterization of exoplanets in addition to studying how they form. She is known for the detection of Kepler 186f, the first Earth-sized planet found in the habitable zone of a star other than the Sun.

Quintana was born in Silver City, New Mexico. Her father Leroy Quintana, is a Chicano poet and her grandfather was a miner who appeared in blacklisted movie Salt of the Earth. Aged 9 she moved to San Diego. She attended Grossmont College and transferred to the University of California at San Diego where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics. During her time as an undergraduate Quintana worked on astrodynamics the KidSat program (later renamed EarthKAM) with first US woman astronaut Sally Ride who was a professor in San Deigo. She received Master's degrees in both Aerospace Science and Physics from the University of Michigan and earned her PhD in Physics from the University of Michigan in 2004. Her PhD thesis for on the topic of planet formation in binary star systems. Quintana was amongst the first people to study whether planets could form in the Alpha Centauri system.