Professor Anneila Isabel Sargent

FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

DSc (born Anneila Cassells, 1942,

Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy ( ; sco, Kirkcaldy; gd, Cair Chaladain) is a town and former royal burgh in Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh and south-southwest of Dundee. The town had a recorded population of 49,460 in 2011, ...

) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

–

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

astronomer who specializes in

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

Biography

Sargent was brought up in

Burntisland Burntisland ( , sco, also Bruntisland) is a former royal burgh and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 6,269. It was previously known as Wester Kingho ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross (i ...

, and schooled at Burntisland Primary School and Kirkcaldy High School.Sommerville, Iain (2000)
From Burntisland to the Outer Limits: the Journey of Anneila Cassells
, burntisland.net, October 2000, retrieved 2010-08-28 She completed a BSc Honours degree in Physics at the University of Edinburgh in 1963, and then immigrated to the United States, first studying at the University of California, Berkeley, and then from 1967 the California Institute of Technology, where she was awarded her Ph.D.Anneila Sargent
", NASA, retrieved 2010-08-28 She is currently the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at Caltech and has served as director of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy.Alumni: Anneila Sargent
", University of Edinburgh, retrieved 2010-08-28 She served as president of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

from 2000 to 2002, continuing to serve on the council since. Sargent was the Vice President for Student Affairs at Caltech from 1 December 2007 until 2016. Sargent was nominated in 2011 by President Obama to serve a six-year term on the National Science Board. She has served on committees such as the NRC Committee for Astronomy and Astrophysics, the

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

Mathematical and Physical Sciences Advisory Committee, and in 1995/6 chaired the Visiting Committee to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. She has been Chair of NASA's Space Science Advisory Committee since 1994. She is also Director of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeterwave Astronomy (CARMA).DISCOVERING HOW PLANETARY SYSTEMS FORM
, Royal Astronomical Society, 16 April 2010, retrieved 2010-08-28

Honours and awards

Sargent won both the NASA Public Service Medal and the Caltech Woman of the Year Award in 1998.

Asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

18244 Anneila Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short s ...

is named in her honor. The University of Edinburgh named her Alumnus of the Year in 2002 and conferred an honorary degree of Doctor of Science on her in 2008.Alumnus of the Year: Professor Anneila Sargent - 2002
", University of Edinburgh, retrieved 2010-08-28 Sargent was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

in 2017. She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the

in 2020. She was elected to the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

in 2021.

Private life

Her husband was fellow astronomer Wallace L. W. Sargent.Murray, Geraldine (1999) "'Bossy' Scot in Star Job", '' Sunday Herald'', 14 March 1999, retrieved 2010-08-28

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sargent, Anneila 1942 births Living people People from Burntisland People educated at Kirkcaldy High School Alumni of the University of Edinburgh University of California, Berkeley alumni California Institute of Technology faculty Scottish emigrants to the United States American women astronomers Scottish astronomers Scottish women scientists Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences