Marla C. Geha is an American astronomer who specializes in

dwarf galaxies A dwarf galaxy is a small galaxy composed of about 1000 up to several billion stars, as compared to the Milky Way's 200–400 billion stars. The Large Magellanic Cloud, which closely orbits the Milky Way and contains over 30 billion stars, is so ...

, and especially the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. She is a professor of astronomy and physics at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

, and director of telescope resources for Yale.

Education and career

Geha grew up wanting to be an astronaut after seeing the launch of the first

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

, and shifted her interests to astronomy in high school as a more realistic career path. She majored in applied and engineering physics as an undergraduate at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1995. She earned a master's degree in astronomy in 1998 from

New Mexico State University New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution of higher education, and was the original land-g ...

, but, dissatisfied with the program, left before completing a Ph.D. After a brief stint at 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 ...

, she reapplied to graduate schools, and went to the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

for a Ph.D., which she completed in 2003. Her dissertation, ''Internal dynamics, structure and formation of dwarf elliptical galaxies'', was jointly supervised by Puragra (Raja) GuhaThakurta and Roeland van der Marel. After postdoctoral research as a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellow 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 ...

, and as a Plaskett Postdoctoral Fellow at the NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre and

Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory is a research facility founded in 1960 and located at Kaleden, British Columbia, Canada. The site houses four radio telescopes: an interferometric radio telescope, a 26-m single-dish antenna, a sol ...

in Canada, she joined the Yale University faculty as an assistant professor in 2008. She was promoted to associate professor in 2012 and full professor in 2014. She has been director of Yale Telescope Resources since 2012. In 2017, she was given a

Howard Hughes Medical Institute The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is an American non-profit medical research organization headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland with additional facilities in Ashburn, Virginia. It was founded in 1953 by Howard Hughes, an American busin ...

professorship, funding a five-year program for science education of military veterans. Geha offers a popular, free online course called "Rocket Science for Everyone".

Recognition

Geha was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 2015. She was a keynote speaker at the 2021 meeting 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 ...

. Geha was named a

Professor in 2018. She is described by students as being "the perfect Professor" and received the Dylan Hixon Prize for teaching from

References

External links

Home page at YaleGeha Research Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geha, Marla Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American astronomers American women astronomers Cornell University alumni New Mexico State University alumni University of California, Santa Cruz alumni Yale University faculty