Caitlin Casey

Caitlin M Casey is an observational astronomer and professor at the University of California Santa Barbara. She is known for her work in extragalactic astrophysics; she works on the formation and evolution of massive galaxies in the early Universe.

Education and career

Casey's interest in astronomy began as a child when she was given the opportunity to visit the planetarium in Rock Bridge High School in her hometown of Columbia, Missouri.

Casey completed her bachelor's degrees in physics, astronomy and applied mathematics from the University of Arizona in 2007. She attributes her decision to attend Arizona from first attending their Astronomy Camp during high school. She then obtained her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 2010 under a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. While in Cambridge she served as president of the Gates Scholars' Society from 2009 to 2010. Casey was subsequently a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, and then she spent two years as a postdoc at the University of California, Irvine as a McCue Postdoctoral Fellow of Cosmology. Casey became assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin in 2015. From 2021 to 2024, Casey was an associate professor at UT Austin, and in 2025 she moved to the University of California Santa Barbara as a full professor in the physics department.

Career and research

Casey is known for her research on galaxy formation and evolution, specifically on the most massive and luminous galaxies in the Universe. While in Hawaii, she examined the formation of starburst galaxies, research that was conducted with the largest spectroscopic survey using the W.M. Keck Observatory of submillimeter-luminous galaxies detected by the Herschel Space Observatory.
While at the University of California, Irvine, Casey authored a review paper on star-forming galaxies. Casey is principal investigator of the COSMOS-Web Survey and the Cosmic Evolution Survey. This work is a collaborative effort with Jeyhan Kartaltepe. The COSMOS-Web Survey is a $0.54\,^2$ James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam imaging program that aims to reveal the sources of cosmic reionization and was the telescope's largest allocated project in its first year of observations. She presented the initial results of her research with the COSMOS-Web survey in 2023.

Casey is an advocate for equity in STEM, creating the TAURUS program, a summer research experience for marginalized students in the summer of 2016. This program is hosted at the University of Texas at Austin at the McDonald Observatory and allows under-represented undergraduate students to get involved with astronomical research. Casey created a workshop designed to spread awareness about bullying, microaggressions and harassment for academic researchers with her colleague Kartik Sheth called The Ethical Gray Zone in 2013.

Selected publications

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Honors and awards

Casey received the 2018 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize awarded by the American Astronomical Society for impactful work in observational astronomy achieved before age 36. In 2019 she was awarded a Cottrell Scholar Award from the Research Corporation for Science Advancement. In 2025, Casey was honored with the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Award in the Physical Sciences issued by the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas.

References

External links

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Living people
Scientists from Columbia, Missouri
Rock Bridge High School alumni
University of Arizona alumni
Alumni of the University of Cambridge
University of Texas at Austin faculty
Women astronomers
Year of birth missing (living people)