Jenny Greene (born October 9, 1978) is an Astrophysicist and Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at

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 ...

. She is notable for her work on

supermassive black holes A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...

and the galaxies in which they reside. Her work also involves a partnership with the Princeton Gravity Initiative and as co-founder and academic advisor to the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) at Princeton University.

Early life and education

In 2000, Greene received a B.S in astronomy and physics (summa cum laude) from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. She then attended

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

for her Ph.D in Astronomy, her thesis entitled ''The Growth of Black Holes: From Primordial Seeds to Local Demographics''.

Career

Academic Career

After her post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton, she became an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at

UT Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

for a year. Since 2011, she has been a faculty member of the Astrophysical Sciences department at Princeton and is currently a professor of astrophysics.

Research

Her broad research interests include measurements of black hole masses, the connection between supermassive black holes and galaxies, stellar and gas kinematics of galactic nuclei, and diffuse light in galaxy clusters. A recent study from 2022, "The Nature of Low-surface-brightness Galaxies in the Hyper Suprime-Cam Survey" highlights Greene's research contributions in utilizing innovations in imaging technology for an intensive study in the ability to distinguish and identify low-surface-brightness galaxies.

Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) at Princeton University

The PTI provides college-level education and other educational opportunities, such as research experiences for undergraduate students, to the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated in New Jersey correctional facilities. Greene has been involved in the effort and growth of the PTI as a post-doc fellow at Princeton since its founding in 2005 and as academic advisor of the program in 2017, when REUs through PTI began.

Awards and honors

* 2000:

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

* 2000:

, George Beckwith Prize in Astronomy * 2002-2003: Certificate of Distinction in Teaching * 2001–2003: NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship * 2006–2009: Hubble Fellow * 2006–2010: Carnegie-Princeton Fellow * 2008: AAS, Annie Jump Cannon Award * 2009:

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Astronomy Department, The Bok Prize * 2011: Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

References

External links

Prison Teaching Initiative

Jenny Greene
at

Department of Astrophysical Sciences Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Women astrophysicists 1978 births Princeton University faculty Yale University alumni Living people American astrophysicists Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy {{physicist-stub