Alyssa Ann Goodman (born July 1, 1962) is the Robert Wheeler Willson Professor of Applied

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, former co-director for Science at the

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

, Research Associate of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

, and the founding director of the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing.

Education

A native of New York, Goodman attended Herricks High School in New Hyde Park, New York. She later received her B.S. in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

in 1984. She then continued her education at

receiving a Ph.D in Physics in 1989.

Career

Goodman's research is conducted at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, where she studies the dense gas between stars. In particular, her research interest is on how interstellar gas arranges itself into new stars. Goodman is also a principal investigator of the COMPLETE Survey of Star-Forming Regions, which maps out three large star-forming regions in the

galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

in their entirety. Goodman's personal research presently focuses primarily on new ways to visualize and analyze the tremendous data volumes created by large and/or diverse astronomical surveys. She has worked closely with Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay on the Microsoft WorldWide Telescope project at

Microsoft Research Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...

and the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

to create, open-source, and enhance the use of the WorldWide Telescope, a computer program offering a virtual online universe to researchers and educators. Goodman was named “Scientist of the Year” by the Harvard Foundation in 2015. She has served on several data-related institutional and government advisory committees, including the National Academy's Board on Research Data and Information, and the NSF-sponsored Council on Big Data, Ethics, and Society. From 2008 to 2009, Goodman was a "Scholar-in-Residence" at WGBH, while on sabbatical. She founded PredictionX, a modular learning program at Harvard that traces humanity's effort to understand the future. She also appeared in a ' Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman episode in season 4.

Honors

* Elected a Legacy Fellow of the

(2020) * Harvard Foundation's 2015 Scientist of the Year * Bok Prize, Harvard (1998) * Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy from the

(1997)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodman, Alyssa A. 1962 births Living people People from New Hyde Park, New York Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Harvard University faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Scientists from New York (state) Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Herricks High School alumni American women astrophysicists American astrophysicists Recipients of the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy