Renée Hložek (born 15 November 1983) is a South African cosmologist, Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, and an Azrieli Global Scholar within the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. She studies the cosmic microwave background, Type Ia supernova and baryon acoustic oscillations. She is a Senior TED Fellow and was made a

Sloan Research Fellow The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

in 2020.

Early life and education

Hložek studied Mathematics at the University of Pretoria and the University of Cape Town graduating in 2008. During her undergraduate studies she worked on dark energy. She completed her PhD at the University of Oxford as a

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

in 2011. Her thesis, "Probing the early universe and Dark Energy with multi-epoch cosmological data", used the

Atacama Cosmology Telescope The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) is a cosmological millimeter-wave telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile. ACT makes high-sensitivity, arcminute resolution, microwave-wavelength surveys of the sky in ord ...

and

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 ...

. Her doctoral advisor was Jo Dunkley. During her time at Oxford, she appeared on

Chris Lintott Christopher John Lintott (born 26 November 1980) is a British astrophysicist, author and broadcaster. He is a Professor of Astrophysics in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford. Lintott is involved in a number of popular scien ...

's Pub Astronomy podcast and

365 Days of Astronomy ''365 Days of Astronomy'' is an educational podcast, inspired by the International Year of Astronomy, published daily beginning in 2009. It is produced as a collaboration between Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and Astrosphere New Media ...

Research and career

After her PhD Hložek joined Princeton University as a Lyman Spitzer Jr. Postdoctoral Research Fellow. At Princeton University she prepared for the polarisation-sensitive

. In 2012 she was appointed a Spitzer-Cotsen Fellow at Princeton University. At Princeton she took part in a prison teaching initiative, and formed the Hope-Princeton exchange to bring young black women into Princeton's astronomy departments. She took part in the Story Collider. In 2013 she took part in the ''Science Train'' started by

Lucianne Walkowicz Lucianne Walkowicz ( ; born 1979) is an American astronomer, artist and activist. They were based at the Adler Planetarium until 2022 and are noted for their research contributions in stellar magnetic activity and its impact on planetary sui ...

at Princeton, where she took to the

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...

to talk to the public about astronomy. She joined the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics in 2016. She continues to work with the polarisation instrument on the

, alongside data from Planck and

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), originally known as the Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP and Explorer 80), was a NASA spacecraft operating from 2001 to 2010 which measured temperature differences across the sky in the cosmic mic ...

and BICEP and Keck Array. She looks to classify radio transient signals using the

Algonquin 46m radio telescope The Algonquin 46m radio telescope (ARO) is a radio telescope at the Algonquin Radio Observatory, Canada. This radio telescope is historically famous for taking part in the first successful very long baseline interferometry experiment in the 196 ...

. She has worked with the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. In 2017 she took part in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Untangling the Cosmos event. In 2020 she was awarded a

. Hložek was named a TED Fellow in 2012 and a Senior Fellow in 2014. Her contribution to

TEDed TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

"The death of the universe" has been viewed 1.1 Million times. She has spoken at several

TED TED may refer to: Economics and finance * TED spread between U.S. Treasuries and Eurodollar Education * ''Türk Eğitim Derneği'', the Turkish Education Association ** TED Ankara College Foundation Schools, Turkey ** Transvaal Education Depa ...

events, including the 2014

TED conference TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

in Vancouver. She takes part in several activities to improve gender balance in science.

References

External links

The death of the universe - Renée Hlozek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hlozek, Renee 1983 births 21st-century South African scientists 21st-century Canadian astronomers TED Fellows Cosmologists Living people Princeton University fellows South African Rhodes Scholars South African women scientists University of Cape Town alumni University of Pretoria alumni University of Toronto faculty LGBT scientists