CV

Stephanie G. Jarmak, Ph.D.
Planetary Science Project Scientist NASA Science Explorer
Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

Ph.D., Physics – Planetary Sciences track, University of Central Florida (UCF), 2020
M.S., Physics, East Texas A&M University, 2015
B.S., Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2013

Dr. Stephanie Jarmak is a project scientist and technical strategist working at the intersection of search relevance, scientific knowledge discovery, and AI-assisted information systems. She leads major initiatives for NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX), a cross-disciplinary expansion of the NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS), where she develops tools that help researchers navigate, discover, and interpret vast scientific corpora.

Her current work focuses on building intelligent search and recommendation systems for scientific literature, including:

  • An evaluation and experimentation framework for measuring and improving search relevance using a hybrid BM25 + vector retrieval approach
  • A scientific entity extraction and disambiguation pipeline for software, dataset, planetary object, and other scientific entity mentions across the scientific literature
  • An embedding-based paper recommender that helps surface semantically similar work across disciplines
  • A citation recommender prototype that leverages co-citation and contextual embedding similarity to identify relevant references

She also supports the broader scientific community by mentoring early-career researchers and leading outreach and advisory efforts through programs like the SciX Ambassador Program and the SciX Advisory Board.

Dr. Jarmak’s background in planetary science includes work with JWST, Cassini, and CubeSat missions, and she maintains active collaborations in surface process modeling and observational data analysis. Her scientific training informs her current mission: building the infrastructure and intelligence needed to power the next generation of research discovery tools across domains.

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

  • Jarmak, S., et al., Solar Occultation Observations of Saturn’s Rings with Cassini UVIS, Icarus 388 (2022)
  • Jarmak, S., et al., The Adhesive Response of Regolith to Low-Energy Disturbances in Microgravity Gravitational and Space Research 9 (2021) 1-12.
  • Jarmak, S., et al., QUEST: A New Frontier Uranus orbiter mission concept study, Acta Astronaut. 170 (2020) 6-26.
  • Jarmak, S., et al., CubeSat Particle Aggregation Collision Experiment (Q-PACE): Design of a 3U CubeSat Mission to Investigate Planetesimal Formation, Acta Astronaut. 155 (2019) 131-142.

SELECT AWARDS & PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

  • Asteroid (30232) Stephaniejarmak
  • NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group Early Career Secretary (2021 – 2024)
  • Gordon Research Seminar – Origins of Solar System Chair (2023 meeting)
  • Outreach presentations for Scobee Education Center, Astronomy on Tap, Skype a Scientist, Girl Scouts
  • University of Central Florida’s Order of Pegasus Award, 2020

PROFESSIONAL CHRONOLOGY: MIT: undergraduate teaching assistant, 2010-11; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): undergraduate researcher, 2010-12; MIT: computing help desk consultant, 2009-11; Texas A&M University-Commerce: graduate research assistant, 2013-15; UCF: graduate teaching assistant, 2015; UCF graduate research assistant, 2016-20; SwRI: postdoctoral researcher, 2020-2022; SwRI: research scientist: 2022-2023; CfA: planetary science project scientist NASA ADS 2023-present.