Meg Urry
Meg (Claudia Megan) Urry is an American astrophysicist, formerly on the Hubble space telescope faculty and currently chair of Astronomy at Yale University.[1] She is notable not only for her contributions to astronomy and astrophysics, including work on black holes and multiwavelength surveys but for her work addressing sexism and gender equity in astronomy, and science and academia more generally.
After growing up in Chicago, Urry attended college at Tufts University, double-majoring in mathematics and physics,[2] and graduating in 1977.[3]
Urry earned an M.S. (1977) and a Ph.D. (1984)[3] in physics from Johns Hopkins, where her advisor was Art Davidsen.[2] For her dissertation, she studied blazars at Goddard Space Flight Center.[2] She then conducted a postdoctorate at M.I.T.'s Center for Space Research,[1] working with Claude Canizarek.[2] Urry joined Yale's faculty in 2001, at that time as the only woman in the department,[1] and became Chair in 2007.[2]
Urry has been active in addressing gender inequities in astronomy and science more generally, giving more than 60 talks on the topic.[3] With Laura Danly, Urry co-organized the first meeting of Women in Astronomy.[2]
Urry studies supermassive black holes, known as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), and the relationship of normal galaxies to AGNs.
Awards
- 1976, 1977, N. Hobbs Knight Award for Physics from Tufts University
- 1976, Phi Beta Kappa
- 1990, Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy
- 1999, American Physical Society Fellow
- 2006, American Women in Science Fellow
- 2007, Connecticut Academy of Science & Engineering
- 2008, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2012, George Van Biesbroeck Prize
Further research
- Meg Urry, "Girls and the Future of Science", Huffington Post, July 19, 2011.
Notes
- ^ a b c Eileen Pollack, "Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?", New York Times, Oct. 6, 2013.
- ^ a b c d e f Karen Masters, "She's an Astronomer: Meg Urry", Galaxy Zoo (May 2, 2010)
- ^ a b c "Meg Urry" (faculty profile), Yale University
External links
- "Meg Urry" (faculty profile), Yale University
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