Meg Urry

Claudia Megan Urry is an American astrophysicist, who has served as the President of the American Astronomical Society, as chair of the Department of Physics at Yale University, and as part of the Hubble Space Telescope faculty.[1] She is currently the Israel Munson Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Yale University and Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics.[2] Urry is notable not only for her contributions to astronomy and astrophysics, including work on black holes and multiwavelength surveys, but also for her work addressing sexism and sex equality in astronomy,[3] science, and academia more generally.

Meg Urry
Meg Urry speaking at Fermilab.
EducationTufts University, B.A. 1977
Johns Hopkins University, M.S. 1979
Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D. 1984
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics
InstitutionsYale University
Doctoral advisorArt Davidsen

Early life and education

After growing up in Indiana and Massachusetts, Urry attended college at Tufts University, double-majoring in mathematics and physics,[4] graduating in 1977.[5] She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the N. Hopes Knight Award for Physics.[6] She became interested in astronomy during the summer of her junior year when she interned at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.[7]

Urry earned an M.S. (1979) and a Ph.D. (1984)[5] in physics from Johns Hopkins, where her advisor was Art Davidsen.[4] For her dissertation, she studied blazars at Goddard Space Flight Center with Richard Mushotzky.[4]

Career

After finishing her Ph.D., Urry conducted a post-doctorate at M.I.T.'s Center for Space Research,[1] working with Claude Canizares.[4] This was followed by another post-doctorate at the Space Telescope Science Institute, after which, in 1990, the Institute hired her as a full-time astronomer.[7]

Urry joined Yale's faculty in 2001, at that time as the only woman in the department.[1] She served as Chair of the Yale Physics Department from 2007 to 2013.[4][8] From 2013 to 2017 she served in the Presidential line of the American Astronomical Society, from 2013-2014 as President-Elect, 2014-2016 as President, and 2016-2017 as Past President.[8][9] In 2020 she was named one of the American Astronomical Society's inaugural class of fellows.[10]

Urry has been active in addressing sex inequality in astronomy and science more generally, giving more than 60 talks on the topic,[5] including at the annual Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP). With Laura Danly, Urry co-organized the first meeting of Women in Astronomy in 1992.[4] This meeting produced the "Baltimore Charter," which was drafted by Sheila Tobias and eventually endorsed by the Council of the American Astronomical Society.[7][11] Reducing the prevalence of sexual harassment in astronomy was also an area of focus for Urry during the time she was President of the American Astronomical Society.[12][13] In 2010 she won the Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarum, and in 2015 she won the Edward A. Bouchet Leadership award from Yale University.[14]

Urry has published over 330 papers in refereed journals, including one of the most highly cited review papers in astronomy.[15][8] She studies supermassive black holes, known as Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), and the relationship of normal galaxies to AGNs. She and her research group participated in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate the growth of supermassive black holes.[16]

Awards and honors

Further reading

References
  1. Eileen Pollack, "Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?", New York Times, Oct. 6, 2013.
  2. "Meg Urry | Department of Physics". physics.yale.edu. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  3. Urry, Meg (2010). "Women in (European) Astronomy". In Röser, Siegfried (ed.). Formation and Evolution of Cosmic Structures. Reviews in Modern Astronomy. Vol. 21. Wiley-VCH. pp. 249–261. ISBN 9783527629206.
  4. Karen Masters, "She's an Astronomer: Meg Urry", Galaxy Zoo (May 2, 2010)
  5. "Meg Urry" Archived 2013-10-04 at the Wayback Machine (faculty profile), Yale University
  6. "Meg Urry". the-women-of-hopkins. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  7. Panek, Richard (March–April 2014). "Astronomy and gender politics". yalealumnimagazine.com. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  8. "C. Megan Urry". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  9. "AAS 2013 Election Results | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  10. Shelton, Jim (2020-03-05). "Basu, Fischer, Urry named inaugural AAS Fellows". YaleNews. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  11. "Women in astronomy: Good news and ambiguous news". Christian Science Monitor. 2003-07-11. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  12. Scoles, Sarah (2016-01-06). "Astronomers Are Finally Doing Something About Sexual Harassment". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  13. Dreifus, Claudia (2016-11-28). "C. Megan Urry, Peering Into Universe, Spots Bias on the Ground". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  14. "Meg Urry | AUI". aui.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  15. "C. Megan Urry". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2023-06-08.
  16. "Charting the heavens like never before, via Sloan Digital Sky Survey". phys.org. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  17. "Academy To Honor Connecticut's Top Student Scientists Young Scientists and Engineers Take the Spotlight at Annual Awards Dinner". Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. 2007-05-23. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  18. "Meg Urry, Physics & Astronomy | Faculty of Arts and Sciences". fas.yale.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-10.
  19. "National Academy of Sciences Members and Foreign Associates Elected". Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  20. "AAS Members Urry, Heckman Elected to National Academy of Sciences | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. Retrieved 2021-08-11.
  21. "The HEAD Distinguished Career Prize|AAS High Energy Astrophysics Division". Retrieved 2023-01-18.
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