Jacqueline Hewitt facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jacqueline Hewitt
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | September 4, 1958 Washington, D.C. |
| Alma mater | Bryn Mawr College Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Awards | Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Thesis | A search for gravitational lensing (1986) |
| Doctoral students | Christopher Williams |
Jacqueline Nina Hewitt, born on September 4, 1958, is an American scientist who studies space. She is an astrophysicist. She made a huge discovery. She was the first person to find something called an Einstein ring. She is also a respected member of the American Astronomical Society.
Contents
Jacqueline Hewitt's Early Life and Learning
Jacqueline Hewitt was born in Washington, D.C., on September 4, 1958. Her father, Warren E. Hewitt, was a lawyer. Her mother was Gertrud Hewitt. Jacqueline went to Bryn Mawr College. She studied economics there and graduated in 1980.
During her second year of college, she took an astronomy class. This class was at Haverford College. It made her very interested in science. After Bryn Mawr, she went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for graduate school.
Studying Gravitational Lensing
While at MIT, Jacqueline started studying something called gravitational lensing. She used a special radio telescope for this. It was called the Very Large Array. She earned her Ph.D. in physics in 1986.
Jacqueline Hewitt's Career and Discoveries
After getting her Ph.D., Jacqueline Hewitt worked at MIT. She was a postdoctoral fellow from 1986 to 1988. During this time, she was looking at data from her graduate studies. She saw a strange ring shape on her computer screen.
The First Einstein Ring
This ring turned out to be a huge discovery! It was part of a system called MG1131+0456. This was the very first Einstein ring ever found. An Einstein ring happens when light from a distant object bends around a massive object. This bending creates a ring shape.
Since Jacqueline's discovery, many more Einstein rings have been found. They are more common than scientists first thought. These rings are important for understanding our universe. They help us learn about its size and what might happen to it in the future.
Working at Princeton and MIT
In 1988, Hewitt worked as a researcher at Princeton University. She was in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences. After a year, she went back to MIT. She became a physics professor there in 1989.
Jacqueline Hewitt also leads the Radio Astronomy Group. This group is part of MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics. Since 2002, she has been the Director of the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.
Awards and Recognition
Jacqueline Hewitt has received many honors for her work. In 1990, she won a fellowship from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Her colleagues at MIT nominated her for the 1995–1996 Harold E. Edgerton Award.
In 1995, she received the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. She also won the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1989. This award was for her important work in radio astronomy. In 2020, she was chosen as a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.
Jacqueline Hewitt's Family Life
Jacqueline Hewitt has two children. Her son, Keith Hewitt Redwine, was born in 1988. Her second son, Jonathan Hewitt Redwine, was born in 1993.
Images for kids
-
A robot, symbolizing science and technology.
