Barbara Sue Ryden (born May 2, 1961) is an American astrophysicist who is a Professor of Astronomy at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

. Her research considers the formation, shape and structure of galaxies. She was elected a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

in 2016.

Early life and education

Ryden studied physics and integrated sciences at

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. She moved to

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

as a doctoral student, where she worked alongside James Gunn. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and

Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics The Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) is a national research institute funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, located at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. CITA's mission is "to ...

Research and career

Ryden joined the faculty at

in 1992. She studies the formation and shapes of galaxies. Her research made use of the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

and various numerical simulations. She has shown that the galactic disks at the centre of spiral galaxies are more elliptical than circular. Ryden has written several astronomy textbooks, including ''Introduction to Cosmology, Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium'' and ''Foundations of Astrophysics''.

Awards and honors

* 1994

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

National Young Investigators Award * 2006

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 ...

Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award The Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award is awarded by the American Astronomical Society for astronomy writing for an academic audience, specifically textbooks at either the upper-division undergraduate level or the graduate level. Books suitable ...

for her book Introduction to cosmology * 2016 Elected Fellow of the

Selected publications

* * *

Books

* * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ryder, Barbara 1961 births Living people American women scientists Northwestern University alumni Princeton University alumni Ohio State University faculty American astrophysicists American women academics 21st-century American women