Meg Urry

Meg Urry is Director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics and served as Chair of the Yale Physics Department from 2007 to 2013. She is currently Past President of the American Astronomical Society (the last in a 4-year term). Professor Urry received her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University and her B.S. in Physics and Mathematics summa cum laude from Tufts University. Her scientific research focuses on active galaxies, which host accreting supermassive black holes in their centers; she has published over 270 refereed research articles on supermassive black holes and galaxies and was identified as a “Highly Cited Author” by Thomson Reuters. Prof. Urry is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academies of Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society and American Women in Science; received an honorary doctorate from Tufts University; and was awarded the American Astronomical Society’s Annie Jump Cannon and George van Biesbroeck prizes. Prior to moving to Yale in 2001, Prof. Urry was a senior astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which runs the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA. Professor Urry is known for her efforts to increase the number of women in the physical sciences, for which she won the 2010 Women in Space Science Award from the Adler Planetarium, and she writes on science for CNN.com.