Current Projects

  • Is Pluto a Planet?
  • Is there Life in Space?
  • How Big is the Universe?

Science Writing: Biography

Alex's science writing started with the Astronomy column in Boston University's "Daily Free Press" back in 1989, and his reentry to the field of science writing and science journalism. Having just finished his PhD in 2005, Alex is enjoying his shift to full-time professional science writing.

Alex (Sandy) Antunes migrated from Baltimore, along the eastern seaboard and as far east as Japan before coming to Maryland and Goddard Space Flight Center. Alex graduated from Boston University in 1989 with a dual major in Astronomy and Physics, then completed a Masters in Astronomy at Penn State in order to be quickly hired by Hughes-STX. Sent to ISAS in Japan, Alex served as mission scheduler for the highly successful ASCA project.

After the conclusion of this very offsite contracting work, Alex returned in 1994 to start work with the XTE project, again as mission scheduler. Then again for Astro-E, after which Alex returned to graduate school and earned his PhD from George Mason University.

During his tenure at GSFC, Alex contributed to Imagine the Universe and co-authored a paper for Science

. Alex served as a science speaker for the 1996 science fiction "Shore Leave" convention, and has spoken for a variety of K12 school classrooms.