Smadar Naoz (; born 1978) is an

Israeli-American Israeli Americans () are Americans who are of full or partial Israeli descent. The Israeli-American community, while predominantly Jewish, also includes various ethnic and religious minorities reflective of Israel's diverse demographics. This c ...

astrophysicist, and was the 2015 winner of the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy for her scientific contributions to the fields of

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

and planetary dynamics.

Early life and education

Naoz grew up in

Jerusalem, Israel Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, and developed her love for astrophysics at a young age with her mother regularly watching Star Trek: The Original Series with her and her younger sister. She graduated from the Racah Institute at

The Hebrew University The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...

with her Bachelors of Science (2002) and her Masters in Science (2004), before continuing her education at the

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) is a Public university, public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Located in northwest Tel Aviv, the university is the center of teaching and ...

, where she was awarded her PhD in 2010. The subject of her PhD research was the first generation of galaxies.

Career

After obtaining her PhD, Naoz accepted an IAU Gruber postdoctoral fellowship at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

's Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA). After her tenure as an IAU Gruber postdoc, she became an Einstein Fellow at the Institute for Theory and Computation 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, ...

. Naoz is continuing her research, and working as an assistant professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Contributions

Naoz's contributions to the field of astrophysics are varied, as her research interests are not strictly localized. She started her career investigating the formation of the first generation of galaxies following the creation of the universe, contributing to cosmology by trying to piece together early structure formation. Naoz has been probing the dynamical evolution of

Hot Jupiter Hot Jupiters (sometimes called hot Saturns) are a class of gas giant exoplanets that are inferred to be physically similar to Jupiter (i.e. Jupiter analogue, Jupiter analogues) but that have very short orbital periods (). The close proximity to t ...

s. She has published many papers in leading scientific journals, including a paper about Hot Jupiters interactions, in the science journal

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

Awards

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of fellows of the ...

, 2022 * Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy awarded by the American Astronomical Society, 2020 * Annie Jump Cannon Prize awarded by the American Astronomical Society, 2015 * Einstein Fellowship awarded by NASA, Sept. 2012 * The National Postdoctoral Award Program for Advancing Women in Science, awarded by

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

, 2009-2011 *

Dan David Prize The Dan David Prize is an international group of awards that recognize and support outstanding contributions to the study of history and other disciplines that shed light on the human past. Nine prizes of $300,000 are awarded each year to outstand ...

2009 scholarship recipient in the field of "Astrophysics – History of the Universe" * The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation Fellowship in 2010. * School of Physics and Astronomy Award for Outstanding Achievements, awarded by Tel Aviv University, 2006

References

External links

Smadar Naoz
website at Department of Physics & Astronomy, Division of Astronomy and Astrophysics, UCLA *
Post formation Dynamical Evolution of Exoplanet Systems — Smadar Naoz (UCLA) 2015
lecture given at the Sagan Exoplanet Summer Workshop
Smadar Naoz, "Gas in the First Generation of Galaxies"
Hydrogen Cosmology Workshop", held May 18–20, 2011 at The Institute for Theoretical, Atomic and Molecular and Optical Physics, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian, Cambridge, Massachusetts {{DEFAULTSORT:Naoz, Smadar Living people Israeli physicists Women astrophysicists Hebrew University of Jerusalem alumni Tel Aviv University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy Fellows of the American Physical Society 1978 births