About the Author

Erika Dunning is a professional astronomer based in La Pine, Oregon. She graduated with her M. Sc from San Diego State University in 2025. She researched circumbinary exoplanets with Dr. Jerome Orosz and discovered the planet candidate TIC 241449505. She contributed to the TESS 10,001 Catalog of Eclipsing Binaries as a part of her thesis research. She has worked as an educator in introductory astronomy at San Diego State University and is passionate about improving access to and accessibility in astronomy.

If you are interested in working with her, you can contact her at erikaldunning@gmail.com.

Publications

Duncan, T., Dunning, E., Hurworth, J., & Mercer, E. 2020, Exoplanets for Everyone, JAAVSO, 48, 247 https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020JAVSO..48..247D

Kostov, V. B., Powell, B. P., Fornear, A. U., et al. 2025, The TESS Ten Thousand Catalog: 10,001 uniformly-vetted and -validated Eclipsing Binary Stars detected in Full-Frame Image data by machine learning and analyzed by citizen scientists. https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.05631