Joan R. Najita is an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and Chief Scientist at the

National Optical Astronomy Observatory The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) was the United States national observatory for ground-based nighttime ultraviolet-optical-infrared (OUVIR) astronomy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded NOAO to provide forefront astronom ...

Career

She has been at NOAO since 1998. In 1993 she received her PhD from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

under supervision of

Frank Shu Frank Hsia-San Shu (; born June 2, 1943), is a Chinese-American astrophysicist, astronomer and author. He is currently a University Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and University of California, San Diego. He is be ...

. She is an expert in

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

and the formation and evolution of

planetary system A planetary system is a set of gravitationally In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interacti ...

s, in particular the gas in

circumstellar disk A circumstellar disc (or circumstellar disk) is a torus, pancake or ring-shaped accretion disk of matter composed of gas, dust, planetesimals, asteroids, or collision fragments in orbit around a star. Around the youngest stars, they are the rese ...

Awards

In 1996, Najita was awarded the

Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy The Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) to a woman resident of North America, who is within five years of receipt of a PhD, for distinguished contributions to astronomy or for similar ...

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American women astronomers American women scientists Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard University alumni 21st-century American women {{US-astronomer-stub