Margaret Geller

Margaret Joan Geller (born in 1948) is an American astronomer and professor. She is a senior astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and has written many articles and produced several award-winning scientific short films.

Her education includes a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1970; an M.A. from Princeton University in 1972; and a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1974.

She is interested in mapping the distribution of the mysterious, ubiquitous dark matter in the universe; studying the halo of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, to understand the link between the history of our galaxy and the history of the universe; mapping clusters of galaxies to understand how these systems develop over the history of the universe; and measuring and interpreting the signatures of star formation in the spectra of galaxies to understand the links between the star formation in galaxies and their environment. She leads a program called SHELS.

In 1989, together with John Huchra, she discovered the Great Wall, basing on redshift survey data from the CfA Redshift Survey.

Awards and honors

• 1989 Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science along with John P. Huchra for "Mapping the Universe"
• 1990 Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1996 Klopsteg Memorial Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
• 2008 Magellanic Premium by the American Philosophical Society for her research into the groupings of galaxies.
• 2010 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society
• 2010 James Craig Watson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences

References

• History of Women in Astronomy: Margaret Geller
• Geller's page at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics site