Jennifer Ann Gupta, known as Jen, is an astrophysicist and science communicator based at the

University of Portsmouth The University of Portsmouth (UoP) is a public university in Portsmouth, England. Comprising five Faculty (division), faculties, the university offers a wide range of academic disciplines. in 2022, with around 28,280 students enrolled in Unde ...

. She has presented on ''

Tomorrow's World ''Tomorrow's World'' is a British television series about contemporary developments in science and technology. First broadcast on 7 July 1965 on BBC1, it ran for 38 years until it was cancelled at the beginning of 2003. The ''Tomorrow's World' ...

'' on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Education

Gupta grew up in Winchester and completed her A-Levels at Peters Symonds Sixth Form College. She completed her master's degree at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, before beginning a PhD at the university's

Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics The Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics (JBCA) at the University of Manchester is among the largest astrophysics groups in the UK. It includes the Jodrell Bank Observatory, the MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, and the Jodrell Bank Visitor Centre. ...

. She earned her PhD "Multiwavelength Studies of Radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei in the Fermi Era" in 2012.

Career

Gupta began science communication during her PhD, taking a major role in '' The Jodcast'' and performing astronomy-inspired stand-up comedy on stage at Bright Club, in Manchester and at London's

Bloomsbury Theatre The Bloomsbury Theatre is a theatre located on Gordon Street in Bloomsbury, within the London Borough of Camden. It is owned by University College London. The Theatre has a seating capacity of 541 and offers a professional programme of innovati ...

. That year she completed a daylong road trip to see the seven

MERLIN The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...

telescopes in a day. Gupta is involved with the training of UK-based physics teachers. She has the co-hosted a number of episodes of the BBC's ''

''. In 2016 she featured in a series of portraits commissioned by the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

celebrating leading women in astronomy. That year, she gave an invited talk at the

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

"The invisible night sky". She delivers regular talks at astronomical societies around the South East of England. In 2015 she hosted

Stargazing Live ''Stargazing Live'' is a British live television programme on astronomy that was broadcast yearly on BBC Two over three nights every winter from 2011 to 2017. The series was primarily presented by scientist Brian Cox and comedian and amateur ...

from the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. Alongside public talks about astronomy, Gupta is interested in science comedy. That year she hosted BAHFest, a celebration of well-argued but incorrect scientific theory. Gupta is the founder and co-host of the

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 ...

podcast ''Seldom Sirius.'' In 2011 she won

I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! is an online science enrichment activity that runs throughout term-time in the UK. School students interact with scientists in text-based live chats in themed 'Zones'. At the end of the event the school students ...

Gupta joined the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the

in 2012. She is responsible for outreach, public engagement and evaluation. Gupta typically works with 10,000 school children and members of the public each year.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gupta, Jen British women astrophysicists Living people British astrophysicists 21st-century British astronomers Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Mass media people from Winchester Alumni of the University of Manchester Academics of the University of Portsmouth Scientists from Winchester