Jennifer Hoffman is an American astrophysicist and associate professor at the

University of Denver The University of Denver (DU) is a private research university in Denver, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1864, it has an enrollment of approximately 5,700 undergraduate students and 7,200 graduate students. It is classified among "R1: D ...

. She studies the circumstellar material around stars.

Early life and education

In 1994 Hoffman graduated from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, having spent a year at

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

. Hoffman earned her PhD in 2002 from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

. Advised by Kenneth Nordsieck, her dissertation was titled ''Locating Mass Loss: Numerical Modeling of Circumstellar Material in Binary Systems''.

Research and career

In 2003 Hoffman was appointed a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow at

. Here she compiled the Women in Astronomy Resource Page. She became more involved in activities to promote diversity in physics and astronomy, working with

Meg Urry Claudia Megan Urry is an American astrophysicist, who has served as the President of the American Astronomical Society, as chair of the Department of Physics at Yale University, and as part of the Hubble Space Telescope faculty.Eileen Pollack"Why ...

on 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 on the Status of Women in Astronomy. She worked with the

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in the Berkeley Hills, hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established i ...

on modelling supernova ejecta. At the

she leads on the HPOL

spectropolarimeter Polarimetry is the measurement and interpretation of the polarization of transverse waves, most notably electromagnetic waves, such as radio or light waves. Typically polarimetry is done on electromagnetic waves that have traveled through or hav ...

. She was the Editor of the 2013 book, "Stellar Polimetry: From Birth to Death (AIP Conference Proceedings/Astronomy and Astrophysics)". In 2015 she was part of the

Mintaka Mintaka , designation Delta Orionis (δ Orionis, abbreviated Delta Ori, δ Ori) and 34 Orionis (34 Ori), is a quintuple star system some 1,200 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Orion. Together with Alnitak (Zeta ...

observing campaign. Hoffman's research group use three dimensional

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...

radiative transfer to model the interaction of

circumstellar material A circumstellar envelope (CSE) is a part of a star that has a roughly spherical shape and is not gravitationally bound to the star core. Usually circumstellar envelopes are formed from the dense stellar wind, or they are present before the formatio ...

with the light of stars and supernovae.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Jennifer Living people American astrophysicists University of Denver faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Year of birth missing (living people)