Rebecca Jensen-Clem

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Rebecca Jensen-Clem
Alma mater Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S.); California Institute of Technology (M.S., Ph.D.)
Known forExtreme adaptive optics; direct imaging of exoplanets
AwardsNew Horizons in Physics Prize (2025); Miller Research Fellowship (2017–2020)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy; Astrophysics; Adaptive optics
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Cruz; University of California, Berkeley (Miller Fellow)
Website rmjc.sites.ucsc.edu

Rebecca Jensen-Clem is an American astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz whose research focuses on extreme adaptive optics and high-contrast imaging for the direct detection and characterization of exoplanets. In 2025 she shared the New Horizons in Physics Prize for demonstrating new extreme adaptive-optics techniques that will enable the direct detection of the smallest exoplanets. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life and education

Jensen-Clem earned a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2008–2012) and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology (2012–2017). [3]

Career and research

From 2017 to 2020 Jensen-Clem was a Miller Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, hosted by astronomer James Graham. [4] [5] In 2020 she joined the faculty at UC Santa Cruz, where she leads the Santa Cruz Extreme Adaptive Optics Laboratory (SEAL), a visible/near-infrared testbed for wavefront sensing and control, coronagraphy, and predictive control for segmented-aperture telescopes. [3] [6] [7]

Her work advances extreme adaptive optics for high-contrast imaging on large ground-based telescopes, including on-sky development for the Keck II AO system and laboratory development on SEAL. She and collaborators have reported results in predictive wavefront control and related techniques for coronagraphic exoplanet imaging. [8] [9]

Jensen-Clem is a co-investigator on the SCALES (Slicer Combined with Array of Lenslets for Exoplanet Spectroscopy) instrument for the W. M. Keck Observatory, aimed at discovering and characterizing cold exoplanets in the 2–5 μm band, [10] and has worked with collaborators on the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC), a high-resolution instrument for directly imaged exoplanets. [11] [12]

In addition to her faculty role, Jensen-Clem has led the UC Santa Cruz Center for Adaptive Optics since 2022, overseeing programs including the annual AO Summer School and community training activities. [13]

Awards and honors

Selected publications

References

  1. 1 2 "Rebecca Jensen-Clem". Breakthrough Prize. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  2. 1 2 "Breakthrough Prize Announces 2025 Laureates in Life Sciences, Fundamental Physics and Mathematics". Breakthrough Prize. April 5, 2025. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  3. 1 2 "Rebecca Jensen Clem – Faculty Directory". UC Santa Cruz Astronomy & Astrophysics. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  4. 1 2 "Miller Fellowship Awards". Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  5. 1 2 "23rd Annual Interdisciplinary Symposium (program)" (PDF). Miller Institute. June 9, 2019. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  6. 1 2 Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Dillon, Daren; Gerard, Benjamin; Kooten, M. A. M. van; Fowler, J.; Kupke, Renate; Cetre, Sylvain; Sanchez, Dominic; Hinz, Phil (September 7, 2021), Shaklan, Stuart B.; Ruane, Garreth J. (eds.), "The Santa Cruz Extreme AO Lab (SEAL): Design and First Light", Techniques and Instrumentation for Detection of Exoplanets X, 11823: 35, arXiv: 2109.03318 , Bibcode:2021SPIE11823E..1DJ, doi:10.1117/12.2594676, ISBN   978-1-5106-4484-7
  7. ↑ "SEAL – Santa Cruz Extreme Adaptive Optics Lab". UC Santa Cruz. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  8. ↑ Van Kooten, Maaike A. M.; Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Fowler, J.; Dillon, Daren; Kupke, Renate; Salama, Maïssa; Gerard, Benjamin L. (2022). "Spatial light modulator on Santa Cruz Extreme AO Laboratory (SEAL) testbed". In Schmidt, Dirk; Schreiber, Laura; Vernet, Elise (eds.). Adaptive Optics Systems VIII. Vol. 12185. p. 261. Bibcode:2022SPIE12185E..6VV. doi:10.1117/12.2630265. ISBN   978-1-5106-5351-1 . Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Real-time control and data standardization on various telescopes and testbeds". SPIE. 2024. doi:10.1117/12.3020595 . Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  10. 1 2 Skemer, Andrew; Stelter, R. Deno; Sallum, Stephanie; MacDonald, Nicholas; Kupke, Renate; Ratliffe, Christopher; Banyal, Ravinder; Hasan, Amirul; Varshney, Hari Mohan (August 23, 2022), Evans, Christopher J.; Bryant, Julia J.; Motohara, Kentaro (eds.), "Design of SCALES: A 2-5 Micron Coronagraphic Integral Field Spectrograph for Keck Observatory", Ground-Based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IX, 12184: 18, arXiv: 2208.10721 , Bibcode:2022SPIE12184E..0IS, doi:10.1117/12.2630577, ISBN   978-1-5106-5349-8
  11. 1 2 Jovanovic, Nemanja; Echeverri, Daniel; Delorme, Jacques-Robert; Finnerty, Luke; Schofield, Tobias; Wang, Jason J.; Xin, Yinzi; Xuan, Jerry; Wallacee, J. Kent (February 3, 2025), "Technical description and performance of the phase II version of the Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer", Journal of Astronomical Telescopes, Instruments, and Systems, 11 015005, arXiv: 2502.01863 , Bibcode:2025JATIS..11a5005J, doi:10.1117/1.JATIS.11.1.015005
  12. ↑ "Astronomy postdoc to develop technologies that mold starlight on a chip". UC Santa Cruz Newscenter. October 15, 2024. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  13. ↑ "About Us – Center for Adaptive Optics". UC Santa Cruz. March 13, 2025. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Dr. Maaike van Kooten awarded prestigious New Horizons in Physics Prize". National Research Council Canada. June 12, 2025. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  15. ↑ "Leiden Observatory news: Breakthrough Prize – 2025 New Horizons in Physics". Leiden University. April 6, 2025. Retrieved September 6, 2025.
  16. ↑ Jensen-Clem, Rebecca; Mawet, Dimitri; Gonzalez, Carlos A. Gomez; Absil, Olivier; Belikov, Ruslan; Currie, Thayne; Kenworthy, Matthew A.; Marois, Christian; Mazoyer, Johan (November 3, 2017), "A New Standard for Assessing the Performance of High Contrast Imaging Systems", The Astronomical Journal, 155: 19, arXiv: 1711.01215 , doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa97e4
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