Rebekah Dawson is an American astrophysicist and an associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. Her research focuses on simulating the evolution of exoplanetary orbits and compositions to better understand how

planetary systems A planetary system is a set of gravitationally bound non- stellar objects in or out of orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a planetary system, although such systems may also cons ...

form.

Career

In 2009, Rebekah Dawson received a B.A. in astrophysics at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial g ...

. She then went to Harvard University where she got a A.M. in Astronomy in (2011) and a Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics supervised by Ruth Murray-Clay in 2013. She went on to her postdoctoral research at the Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science from 2013 to 2015. In January 2016, she started working as an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, Penn State became ...

. She was named the Shaffer Career Development Professor in Science in October 2020 and was promoted to the rank of associate professor in July 2021.

Awards

In 2017, she was awarded the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy by 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 ...

"for her work modeling the dynamical interactions of exoplanets in multiplanet systems." In 2018, Dawson was named as an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow. Dawson was awarded the 2020

Harold C. Urey Prize The Harold C. Urey Prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society. The prize recognizes and encourages outstanding achievements in planetary science by a young scientist. The prize is named af ...

by the Division for Planetary Sciences, a division of the American Astronomical Society, "in recognition of her groundbreaking research on planetary dynamics, the formation of planetary systems, and the characterization of exoplanets on close-in orbits." She was again honored by American Astronomical Society in 2021 with the

Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36, or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...

"for her important contributions on planet formation and dynamics, particularly on hot Jupiter exoplanets and the connection between planetary composition and orbital structure."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawson, Rebekah Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American astrophysicists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American astronomers