Ruth Murray-Clay is a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz who studies the formation of planetary systems.

Career

Murray-Clay graduated

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some So ...

with an A.B. from Harvard University in 2001, then moved to the University of California, Berkeley where she earned an MA in 2004 and Ph.D. in 2008 under the supervision of Eugene Chiang. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard University Institute for Theory and Computation until 2010 when she became a lecturer at Harvard University. In September 2014 she joined University of California, Santa Barbara where she held the title of assistant professor of physics. She joined University of California, Santa Cruz in 2016 as associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, and in 2017, she became the first holder of the E. K. Gunderson Family Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.

Awards

In 2008, Murray-Clay received the Mary Elizabeth Uhl Prize for her dissertation work done while at University of California, Berkeley. In 2012, she became a Kavli Fellow of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

. She was awarded 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 ...

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 ...

in 2015.

Public life

Murray-Clay came into the public spotlight in 2015 after

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released a story detailing astronomer Geoffrey Marcy's sexual harassment of women and the university's apparent inaction, ultimately leading to Marcy's resignation. Murray-Clay, who was a student at University of California, Berkeley during the time harassment was taking place, came forward to describe her attempts to stop the harassment and the lack of action by university officials. Her involvement is credited with helping to bring attention to sexual harassment in the field of astronomy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray-Clay, Ruth American women astronomers American women scientists Harvard University alumni University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Living people American astrophysicists University of California, Berkeley alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women