Elizabeth Lada is an American astronomer whose self-described research interests include "understanding the origin, properties, evolution and fate of young embedded clusters within molecular clouds". [1]
Lada received her Bachelor of Science in Physics degree from Yale University in 1983 and her Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Texas in 1990. [1] Lada is currently Professor of Astronomy at the University of Florida. [1]
The American Astronomical Society (AAS) honored her work by awarding her the Annie J. Cannon Prize in 1992. [2] She also was named as a Hubble Fellow during her work at the University of Maryland. [3] [1] She was awarded a NSF CAREER award in 1999. [1] [4] In 1998 she received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). [1] [5]
She was named a Fellow of the AAS in 2023, "for pioneering the use of infrared array detectors to push ground-based infrared imaging limits and survey giant molecular clouds for obscured populations of young stars; for transformative work on a broad range of problems in star formation including constraining the initial mass function within giant molecular clouds and performing the first robust measurements of the frequency and lifetimes of circumstellar disks in young clusters; and for extensive service to the astronomical community as a member of many boards and committees". [6]
Amy J. Barger is an American astronomer and Henrietta Leavitt Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is considered a pioneer in combining data from multiple telescopes to monitor multiple wavelengths and in discovering distant galaxies and supermassive black holes, which are outside of the visible spectrum. Barger is an active member of the International Astronomical Union.
Dr. Sally Oey is an American astronomer at the University of Michigan and an expert in massive, hot stars which are often precursors to supernovae. In 1999, she was awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and, in 2006, was invited to give an address to the 206th meeting of the AAS. Oey is currently a professor and is a member of the board of the Gemini Observatory. In 2023, the University of Michigan named her an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in recognition of her contributions to undergraduate education.
The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 and Sh2-277, is an emission nebula in the constellation Orion. It is about 1350 light-years away. At that distance, the Flame Nebula lies within the Orion B cloud of the larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex.
Wendy Laurel Freedman is a Canadian-American astronomer, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant, and as director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile. She is now the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology, focusing on measuring both the current and past expansion rates of the universe, and on characterizing the nature of dark energy.
Claudia Megan Urry is an American astrophysicist, who has served as the President of the American Astronomical Society, as chair of the Department of Physics at Yale University, and as part of the Hubble Space Telescope faculty. She is currently the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. Urry is notable not only for her contributions to astronomy and astrophysics, including work on black holes and multiwavelength surveys, but also for her work addressing sexism and sex equality in astronomy, science, and academia more generally.
Laura A. Lopez is an associate professor of astronomy at Ohio State University studying the life cycle of stars. She was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 2016, which is awarded by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) for outstanding research and promise for future research by a postdoctoral woman researcher.
Heather A. Knutson is an astrophysicist and professor of planetary science at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences. Her research is focused on the study of exoplanets, their composition and formation.
Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay is an American planetary scientist known for studying planet formation, planetary geology, and materials science. She is a professor at the University of California, Davis in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. She was a professor at Harvard University Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 2003 to 2014.
Jenny Greene is an Astrophysicist and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. She is notable for her work on supermassive black holes and the galaxies in which they reside. Her work also involves a partnership with the Princeton Gravity Initiative and as co-founder and academic advisor to the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) at Princeton University.
Emily Levesque is an American astronomer, author, and associate professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington. She is renowned for her work on massive stars and using these stars to investigate galaxy formation. She is also the author of three books, including the 2020 popular science book The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy's Vanishing Explorers.
Ann Hornschemeier is an American astronomer specializing in X-ray emission from X-ray binary populations. She is the Chief Scientist for the Physics of the Cosmos program at NASA.
Vassiliki Kalogera is a Greek astrophysicist. She is a professor at Northwestern University and the director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). She is a leading member of the LIGO Collaboration that observed gravitational waves in 2015.
Stefi Baum is an American astronomer. The American Astronomical Society honored her work by awarding her the Annie J. Cannon Prize in 1993. Baum helped to develop the Hubble Space Telescope and, starting in 2004, was the director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.
Rebekah Dawson is an American astrophysicist and an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Pennsylvania State University. Her research focuses on simulating the evolution of exoplanetary orbits and compositions to better understand how planetary systems form.
Lauren Ilsedore Cleeves is an American astrophysicist and an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia. She is specialized in the study of protoplanetary disks.
Blakesley Burkhart is an astrophysicist. She is the winner of the 2017 Robert J. Trumpler Award awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which recognizes a Ph.D. thesis that is "particularly significant to astronomy." She also is the winner of the 2019 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy and the 2022 winner of The American Physical Society's Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. The awards both cited her work on magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and for developing innovative techniques for comparing observable astronomical phenomena with theoretical models.
Dara J. Norman is an astronomer and the deputy director of the Community Science and Data Center at the National Science Foundation's National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab) in Tucson, Arizona. She is also the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Diversity Advocate at NOAO. Her research centers on the influence of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) on the evolution of galaxies. In 2020, she was inducted into the inaugural cohort of American Astronomical Society Fellows in recognition of her leadership and achievements.
Jacqueline K. (Jackie) Faherty is an American astronomer specializing in infrared astronomy and the observation of nearby stars and brown dwarfs, and known for her public outreach in space science. She works at the American Museum of Natural History as a senior scientist in the museum's Department of Astrophysics and a senior education manager in the Department of Education.
Margaret M. Hanson is an American astronomer and academic at the University of Cincinnati where she is a professor of physics. She has been serving as an academic administrator since 2011, most recently as the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Ata Sarajedini is an astrophysicist, professional astronomer, academic, author, and podcaster. He is the Bjorn Lamborn Endowed Chair and Professor in Astrophysics at Florida Atlantic University.