The Astronomy Department is pleased to welcome our latest faculty hire, professor Kate Rubin, who joined our Department this fall. Kate has an expertise in extragalactic astronomy, with an emphasis on the flow of gas into and out of galaxies as they form and evolve. Kate received her doctorate from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2010. After receiving her degree she spent three years at the Max Planck Institut fur Astronomie in Heidelberg continuing her research using some of the largest telescopes in the world. Then, just prior to coming to SDSU, Kate spent 3 years as a Clay Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics building a reputation as one of the world’s foremost experts on gas flows in galaxies. Her hire fills a long-standing gap in our Department’s expertise in the study of galaxies, and we are extremely excited to have her on board. Her addition to the Department will not only enable us to provide a more balanced curriculum, but will provide our students opportunities to conduct cutting-edge research in this important area of contemporary Astronomy.