Nationality American Fields Astrophysics, Cosmology Doctoral advisor Jim Peebles | Role Astrophysicist Name Margaret Geller | |
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Born Margaret Joan Geller
December 8, 1947
Ithaca, New York ( 1947-12-08 ) Institutions Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory Alma mater UC Berkeley (B.A., 1970)
Princeton University (Ph.D., 1975) Notable awards Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1989)
MacArthur Fellowship (1990)
Klopsteg Memorial Award (1996)
Magellanic Premium (2008)
James Craig Watson Medal (2010)
Russell Lectureship (2010)
Lilienfeld Prize (2013)
Karl Schwarzschild Medal (2014) Education University of California, Berkeley, Princeton University Awards MacArthur Fellowship, James Craig Watson Medal | ||
Interview with Dr. Margaret Geller
Margaret J. Geller (born December 8, 1947) is an American astrophysicist at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Her work has included pioneering maps of the nearby universe, studies of the relationship between galaxies and their environment, and the development and application of methods for measuring the distribution of matter in the universe.
Contents
- Interview with Dr Margaret Geller
- Career
- Research
- Films and Public Lectures
- Books
- Awards and honors
- References
Career
Geller received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley (1970) and a Ph.D. in Physics from Princeton (1975). Although Geller planned to study solid state physics, she shifted her focus to the large-scale structure of the universe at the suggestion of an advisor in her graduate program. After research fellowships at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, she became an assistant professor of Astronomy at Harvard University (1980-1983). She then joined the permanent scientific staff of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a partner in the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Geller is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the American Physical Society. In 1990, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Two years later, she was elected to the Physics section of the US National Academy of Sciences. From 2000 to 2003, she served on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences. She has received seven honorary degrees (D. S. H. C. or L. H. C.).
Research
Geller is known for observational and theoretical work in cosmology and extragalactic astronomy. In the 1980s, she made pioneering maps of the large-scale structure of the universe, which led to the discovery of the Great Wall. With the 6.5-m MMT, she is conducting a more distant survey of the universe called HectoMAP. Geller has developed innovative techniques for investigating the internal structure and total mass of clusters of galaxies and the relationship of clusters to the large-scale structure.
Geller is also a co-discoverer of hypervelocity stars.
Films and Public Lectures
Geller has made several films for public education. Her 8-minute video Where the Galaxies Are (1989) was the first graphic voyage through the observed universe and was awarded a CINE Gold Eagle. A later 40-minute film, So Many Galaxies...So Little Time, contains more sophisticated prize-winning (IEEE/Siggraph) graphics and was on display at the National Air and Space Museum.
Geller has lectured extensively to public audiences around the world. She has lectured twice in the main amphitheater at the Chautauqua Institution.
She is included in NPR's list of The Best Commencement Speeches, Ever.
Her story about her entry into astrophysics and meeting the renowned astrophysicist John Archibald Wheeler, entitled "Mapping the Universe" was published by The Story Collider podcast on May 21, 2014.
Books
Geller's work is discussed in Physics in the Twentieth Century. Popular articles by Geller appear with those by Robert Woodrow Wilson, David Todd Wilkinson, J. Anthony Tyson and Vera Rubin in Beyond Earth: Mapping the Universe and with others by Alan Lightman, Robert Kirshner, Vera Rubin, Alan Guth, and James E. Gunn in Bubbles, Voids and Bumps in Time: The New Cosmology.