Jane Rigby
Jane Rigby is an American astronomer, the James Webb Space Telescope senior project scientist at NASA, and a social activist in the astronomy community.[1][2][3] She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.[1] The medal is the highest US civilian award.[1] President Biden presented the award to her for her work on the James Webb Space Telescope.[1] The James Webb Telescope is one of NASA’s multi-billion dollar instruments in space.[1][2] The telescope helps take images of deep space.[1][2][3] Jane Rigby is the senior project scientist.[1] This means she helps keep the telescope working.[2] The telescope has found many discoveries in deep space.[1][2][3] Jane Rigby has worked with many other important telescopes in her career, like the Hubble Space Telescope, Spritzer, the Keck Telescopes, and the Chandra x-ray Telescope.[1] She also wrote around 150 papers on her discoveries in her career.[1]
Early life
She was always interested in space and wanted to be an astronaut when she was a child.[2][3] Jane Rigby got a masters and doctoral degree in astronomy at the University of Arizona.[1]
Activism
She helps make queer astronauts and other groups that struggle to become astronomers more welcome in the astronomy community.[3] She has been helping set up meetings to advocate for those groups during her career.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Ravisetti, Monisha (2024-05-09). "James Webb Space Telescope chief scientist Jane Rigby receives highest US civilian award". Space. Retrieved 2025-04-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Jane Rigby helped make the James Webb telescope a superstar". 2025-02-03. Retrieved 2025-04-18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Sharp, Andrew (2023-05-23). "This Delaware Native Oversees a $10 Billion Telescope at NASA". Delaware Today. Retrieved 2025-04-18.