Jane Rebecca Rigby is an American astrophysicist who works at the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

and is Senior Project Scientist of the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

. She was selected one of ''

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

'' Ones to Watch in 2021 and Shape 2022. In 2024 she was awarded the

Presidential Medal of Freedom The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the highest civilian award of the United States, alongside the Congressional Gold Medal. It is an award bestowed by decision of the president of the United States to "any person recommended to the President ...

by President

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

Early life and education

A 1996 graduate of Seaford High School in

Seaford, Delaware Seaford is a city located along the Nanticoke River in Sussex County, Delaware, United States. According to the 2010 Census Bureau figures, the population of the city is 6,928, an increase of 3.4% from the 2000 census. It is part of the Salisbu ...

, Rigby became interested in astrophysics as a high school student. She has said

Sally Ride Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space, after cosmonauts V ...

made her realize that girls could study physics. Rigby was an undergraduate student at

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

. She worked toward a degree in physics and astronomy, and completed an undergraduate dissertation on MgII emission systems. She moved to the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

for graduate studies, where she worked on

X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...

diagnostics of

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that emits a significant amount of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum, with characteristics indicating that this luminosity is not produced by the stars. Such e ...

under the supervision of George H. Rieke.

Research and career

Rigby spent six months as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona before being appointed a

Carnegie Fellow Carnegie may refer to: People *Carnegie (surname), including a list of people with the name **Andrew Carnegie, Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist * Clan Carnegie, a lowland Scottish clan Institutions Named for Andrew Carnegie * ...

at the

Carnegie Observatories The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

. In 2010, Rigby was appointed deputy operations project scientist at the

(JWST) and civil servant at

. She was made project scientist for operations in 2018. She delivered a TED talk on space telescopes in 2011. In June 2023, she was chosen as the senior project scientist for the JWST, succeeding

John C. Mather John Cromwell Mather (born August 7, 1946) is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist and Nobel Prize in Physics laureate for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer Satellite (COBE) with George Smoot. This work helped cement the Big Ba ...

. Rigby is responsible for TEMPLATES (Targeting Extremely Magnified Panchromatic Lensed Arcs and Their Extended Star Formation), a project that looks to use high signal-to-noise

NIRSpec The NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) is one of the four scientific instruments flown on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST is the follow-on mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and is developed to receive more information ...

and

mid-infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those of ...

integral field units (IFU) spectroscopy to image 4 gravitationally lensed galaxies. The program is expected to spatially resolve star formation.

Work for inclusivity

Rigby was a founding member of 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 ...

Committee for Sexual-Orientation and Gender Minorities in Astronomy. In 2015 she co-organised Inclusive Astronomy, a worldwide initiative to celebrate inclusivity and equity in astronomy.

Awards and honors

* 2006 Spitzer Space Telescope Postdoctoral Fellow * 2013 Eberly College of Science Outstanding Alumni Award * 2013

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Robert H. Goddard Award for Exceptional Achievement for Science * 2014 NASA Robert H. Goddard Award for Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunity * 2015

Peer Award * 2018 John C. Lindsay Memorial Award for Space Science * 2021 ''

'' Ones to Watch in 2022 * 2022 Out to Innovate LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year * 2022

BBC 100 Women ''100 Women'' is a BBC multi-format series established in 2013. The annual series examines the role of women in the 21st century and has included events in London and Mexico. Announcement of the list is the start of an international "BBC's wome ...

* 2022 ''

'' * 2024

Selected publications

* * *

Personal life

Rigby came out as lesbian in 2000. When she joined the

as a graduate student, it was still against state law to be gay.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigby, Jane American astrophysicists American women astrophysicists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Goddard Space Flight Center people Pennsylvania State University alumni University of Arizona alumni Lesbian scientists American LGBTQ scientists LGBTQ physicists LGBTQ astronomers 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American astronomers 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American LGBTQ people LGBTQ people from Delaware People from Seaford, Delaware Scientists from Delaware Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients