A little about me….
Me in September, 2021, at the summit of Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, site of NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility, seen in background.
Hi there! My name is Brendan Steffens. Thanks for checking out my page! :) I am 20 +/- 14 years old, and I am a PhD Space Scientist (Florida Institute of Technology) with a wide variety of experience, ranging from planetary science to exoplanet detection to cosmology. My intent is to contribute to humanity’s understanding and appreciation of the universe, both as a researching scientist and as an educator. Additionally, I naturally seek opportunities that would allow me to use my skills to contribute to humanity’s expansion outward into space, away from Earth, but also to improve the quality of life for humanity here on Earth. I am particularly passionate concerning efforts to understand and mitigate the changing climate here on our home planet.
In fact, I am currently living in Germany and employed as a Research Scientist at Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, conducting climate change - related research that seeks to model the abundances and flow of important greenhouse gases and pollutants. Part of the CATALYSE project, our results will facilitate establishment of sturdier and more actionable connections between the changing climate and the mortality of humankind. Broadly speaking, the goal is to elucidate these connections and in doing so, foster more vigorous efforts to combat the changing climate and mitigate future loss of human life.
A physicist by training, I have a wide variety of other research interests, most of them related to space and space exploration, or atmospheric science in general. As I mentioned, I have conducted research in exoplanet detection techniques, cosmology, and most recently, molecular spectroscopy of Titan’s atmosphere. I also maintain, primarily through self-teaching, a particularly keen interest in Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, and I do hope to contribute to that field at some point in my career as well.
At the end of 2021, I completed my second internship at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, analyzing high-resolution spectra of some of the hydrocarbons predicted to be present in the atmosphere of Titan, Titan being one of the most interesting of Saturn’s moons. I actually documented my first experience at JPL, if you’re interested in seeing what it was like: check out my JPL Internship Blog!
When I am not doing science, I am a passionate musician. I play a lot of classical piano music (Chopin and Debussy are my favorites), and I also like to write my own music and cover the music of several of my favorite artists. I actually recently released my debut solo album, “The Outer Planets”, which is available for digital purchase and streaming in all the usual places. Check out my Music page for more information if you are interested!
I also like to bike, hike, and I am a fairly avid reader of popular science, science fiction, and fantasy genres. An interesting aspect of my life is meditation. To manage mental health and to empirically explore the phenomenon of consciousness, I regularly practice Vipassanā (insight) meditation, and I have been doing so for several years.
Are you curious about that quotation that I use for my website’s tagline near the top of the page?
The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interest alongside its own without bias…
-Billings Learned Hand, 1944
It comes from Judge Learned Hand’s 1944 speech on the Spirit of Liberty. I find it to be a very nice representation of a major component of my worldview: I strongly believe that true progress in both science and human flourishing comes when we are generally hesitant, rather than eager, to be confident in our understanding or interpretation of a concept or idea. In my view, true understanding can be converged upon only when we are able to honestly state the limitations of our current understanding.
The proof that true liberty follows from these considerations is left as an exercise to the interested reader…
This photo (as well as the header photo for my website) was taken by my good friend Wes Solether.