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What Are Astronomers Doing?
Seth Redfield
"The Songs of the Heavens" 
Seth Redfield
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"Tell them life is worthwhile when you come from a place like Nebraska," sings the state ballad for the Cornhusker State. Indeed Nebraska-native Seth Redfield’s contentedness with life is obvious as he muses on the people and events that have passed through it. He speaks fondly of his fascination with music. Likewise, the songs of the heavens have caught his ear, so he now tries to untangle their tune as an astronomer.
Seth says he had always been interested in science, particularly in astronomy. In his last year of high school, he says his musical interests became more intense. So he decided to study both science and music in college, through joint program involving Tufts University and The New England Conservatory of Music, both in Boston.
At Tufts, Seth studied physics and astrophysics, while at the New England Conservatory, he majored in Theoretical Studies and focused on mastery of the oboe. "Musicians will spend hours and hours in the practice room. You can see that same behavior in scientists. That's what I liked about the double program," Seth says.
"Great opportunities"
In his second year of college, Seth worked in a research program for college students at the National Solar Observatory near Tucson. "I think these programs are great opportunities," he says. Through his work with Dr. Charles Lindsey, Seth says he discovered that he enjoyed working in the astronomy research community. In the next few years of his college career, Seth worked at Harvard's Center for Astrophysics and at the Very Large Array in Socorro, New Mexico.
"I decided that I would do astrophysics in grad school ... and I really enjoyed Boulder," Seth says. Fortunately, the university at Boulder not only has a world-class astrophysics program but also "anything you want to do out of doors," he says. Apart from his work on mapping the material within a few quadrillion miles (that's a thousand trillion miles) of our Sun, Seth says he also enjoyed backpacking, hiking, and playing ultimate frisbee with friends in Boulder.
In 2003, Seth came to the University of Texas at Austin as a Harlan J. Smith Postdoctoral Fellow. After that, he won a prized Hubble Fellowship from NASA and continued his research at UT-Austin.
Seth has recently left Austin to become an assistant professor of astronomy at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Seth Redfield
Assistant Professor, Astronomy, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT
Ph.D., Astrophysics, University of Colorado, Boulder
M.S., Astrophysics, University of Colorado, Boulder
B.M., Theoretical Studies, The New England Conservatory of Music
B.S., Physics & Astrophysics, Tufts University
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