Cynthia Phillips, PhD, is a scientist at the SETI Institute and works at the Center for the Study of Life in the Universe. She received her BA in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics at Harvard University and her PhD in planetary science with a minor in geosciences from the University of Arizona. She has written for a number of technical publications in her field, including Science, Nature, Journal of Geophysical Research, and Icarus. She has also written articles on a more general level for newsletters at the University of Arizona and at the SETI Institute, and she's prepared many official NASA press releases. She has taught astronomy to students from junior high to college and has given public lectures to general audiences. She is the coauthor of 101 Things You Didn't Know About Einstein.