Jenny Greene facts for kids
Jenny Greene, born on October 9, 1978, is a super smart scientist who studies space! She is an astrophysicist and a professor at Princeton University. She is famous for her work on huge objects in space called supermassive black holes. She also studies the galaxies where these black holes live. Besides her space work, she helps with a special program at Princeton that teaches people in prison.
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Jenny's Journey to the Stars
Jenny Greene loved learning about space from a young age. In 2000, she finished her studies at Yale University with top honors in astronomy and physics. After Yale, she went to Harvard to earn her Ph.D. in astronomy. A Ph.D. is a very high university degree. Her special project was about how black holes grow, from tiny beginnings to the giant ones we see today.
After finishing her Ph.D., Jenny worked as a researcher at Princeton. Then, she became a professor at UT Austin. Since 2011, she has been a professor at Princeton University. She teaches and studies in the Astrophysical Sciences department.
What Jenny Studies in Space
Jenny's main interests are about measuring how big black holes are. She also studies how these giant black holes are connected to the galaxies they live in. Galaxies are huge groups of stars, gas, and dust. She looks at how stars and gas move inside the centers of galaxies. She also studies the faint light found in big groups of galaxies called galaxy clusters.
In 2022, Jenny worked on a study about "low-surface-brightness galaxies." These are galaxies that are very faint and hard to see. She used special imaging tools to find and study these hidden galaxies. It's like finding a very dim light in a dark room!
Helping Others Learn
Jenny is also a co-founder and advisor for a program called the Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI). This program helps people in New Jersey prisons get a college-level education. It also gives them chances to do research, just like university students. Jenny has been involved with PTI since it started in 2005. She became an academic advisor for the program in 2017. She believes everyone should have a chance to learn and grow.
Awards and Honors
Jenny Greene has received many awards for her amazing work:
- 2000: Phi Beta Kappa (a very old and respected honor society)
- 2000: Yale University, George Beckwith Prize in Astronomy
- 2002–2003: Certificate of Distinction in Teaching
- 2001–2003: NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship
- 2006–2009: Hubble Fellow (a special research position)
- 2006–2010: Carnegie-Princeton Fellow
- 2008: AAS, Annie Jump Cannon Award (an award for women in astronomy)
- 2009: Harvard University Astronomy Department, The Bok Prize
- 2011: Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship
