| 2003 | Annette Ferguson, an observational astronomer who specializes in the area of galaxy evolution, is a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik in Germany. She conducts observations of stars and interstellar gas in nearby galaxies as a means of probing the physical processes that govern the formation and evolution of our own Milky Way. Much of her recent work has focused on the Andromeda galaxy, our nearest large galactic neighbor, where she and her collaborators have found spectacular evidence of the cannibalistic process by which large galaxies grow by devouring smaller ones. |
| 2002 | Vicky Kalogera, assistant professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University, is a theoretical astrophysicist in the area of compact stars (white dwarfs, neutron stars, and black holes). Her research focuses on star formation and evolution in binary stellar systems, where they can become visible as X-ray sources. A key goal of her research in X-ray astrophysics is to understand how different galactic environments affect the evolution and properties of X-ray binaries. She also studies compact object binaries as sources of gravitational waves and their prospects for detection in the coming decade. She earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the Aristotle University in Thessaloníki, Greece, and a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign. |
| 2001 | Amy Barger is a Hubble Fellow and Chandra Fellow-at-Large at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she conducts research on observational cosmology while on faculty leave from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She is conducting a cosmic census of extragalactic sources to infer the time history of the galaxy’s evolution. She is particularly interested in determining the accretion activity of supermassive black holes in the distant universe. Scientists now believe that at one time black holes were dominant features in the universe. Barger’s research is designed to help astronomers better understand black holes and star formation. |
| 2000 | Alycia Weinberger, a postdoctoral research astronomer at the University of California, Los Angeles, uses high resolution imaging techniques to study the properties and evolution of disks around stars. Her research, which focuses on young nearby stars, is intended to provide data that is key to understanding the formation and composition of planets. |
| 1999 | Marion S. (Sally) Oey, a postdoctoral institute fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts research on how the most massive and luminous stars affect their environment and host galaxies. This work will add to knowledge about the distant universe by improving interpretations of observations in more distant galaxies. |
| 1998 | Victoria Kaspi, assistant professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the first to detect orbital advance due to the spin-induced quadrupole moment of a rapidly spinning star, providing new evidence for the existence of birth kicks to neutron stars. She also has contributed significantly to the study of young pulsar associations with supernova remnants and millisecond pulsars. |
| 1997 | Chung-Pei Ma, assistant professor or physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, received her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During her graduate work, she pioneered the study of mixed dark matter cosmological models, which are now thought to be one of the most promising choices for describing the large-scale distribution of matter in the universe. She is researching the evolution of large-scale structure and constraint on the cosmological parameters of the universe. |
| 1996 | Joan Najita earned a doctorate in astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley and is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She helped develop a theory that explains stellar winds. Her research, which focuses on disks around young stars, may help support the idea that there are other planetary systems like our own circling around other stars. |
| 1995 | Suzanne Madden holds a master’s degree and a doctorate of astronomy from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has observed the galaxies from telescopes in Chile, Germany, Spain, and the United States. A research associate at NASA Ames Research Center in California, she is using the award to examine star formation in irregular galaxies. Her studies are helping solve complex questions concerning the evolution of galaxies and the history of star formation. |
| 1994 | Andrea Mia Ghez holds a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s and doctorate from the California Institute of Technology. In her work at the University of California, Los Angeles, she used her award to extend her study of young stars to stars found in regions observable from the southern hemisphere. With these observations, she hopes to better understand the formation of stars, including our sun. |
| 1993 | Stefi Alison Baum holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a doctorate in astronomy from the University of Maryland. Baum used the grant to support a three-month visit to the Netherlands Foundation for Research in Astronomy to work on important international research in the fueling of active galactic nuclei and starburst galaxies. |
| 1992 | Elizabeth Lada is an astrophysicist whose work has already had an impact on studies of star formation. Colleagues describe her as one of the best young researchers in her field. A postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, she has held two Amelia Earhart Fellowships and a NASA Graduate Student Researchers Program Fellowship. |
| 1991 1990 1989 1988 1986 1984 1982 1980 1978 1976 1974 | Jane Luu Claudia Megan Urry Jacqueline N. Hewitt Karen J. Meech Rosemary F. Wyse Harriet L. Dinerstein Judith S. Young Lee Anne M. Willson Paula Szkody Catharine D. Garmany Beatrice M. Tinsley |
