Jane Luu
Jane Lưu | |
---|---|
Born | July 1963 (age 61) Saigon, Vietnam |
Residence | Lexington, Massachusetts |
Fields | Astronomy, Astrophysics |
Institutions | Harvard University, Lincoln Laboratory at MIT. |
Alma mater | Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | Physical Studies of Primitive Solar System Bodies (1992 [1]) |
Doctoral advisor | David Jewitt |
Known for | Discovery the Kuiper belt |
Notable awards | Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy (1991) Shaw Prize (2012) Kavli Prize (2012) |
Spouse | Ronnie Hoogerwerf |
Dr. Jane X. Luu (Vietnamese: Lưu Lệ Hằng;[2] born July 1963) is a Vietnamese American astronomer.
Contents
Early life
Luu was born in July 1963 in South Vietnam to a father who worked as a translator for the U.S. Army.[3] Her father taught her French as a child, beginning her lifelong love of languages.[4]
Luu immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1975, when the South Vietnamese government fell. She and her family settled in Kentucky, where she had relatives. A visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory inspired her to study astronomy.[4] She attended Stanford University, receiving her bachelor's degree in 1984.[5]
Work as a graduate student and co-discovery of the Kuiper Belt
As a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley[6] and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, she worked with David C. Jewitt to discover the Kuiper Belt.[4] In 1992, after five years of observation, they found the first known Kuiper Belt object other than Pluto and its largest moon Charon, using the University of Hawaii's 2.2 meter telescope on Mauna Kea.[3][7] This object is (15760) 1992 QB1, which she and Jewitt nicknamed "Smiley".[5] The American Astronomical Society awarded Luu the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1991. In 1992, Luu received a Hubble Fellowship from the Space Telescope Science Institute and chose the University of California, Berkeley as a host institution. The asteroid 5430 Luu is named in her honor.[8][9] She received her PhD in 1992 at MIT.
Professional life
After receiving her doctorate, Luu worked as a professor at Harvard University, since 1994.[5] Luu also served as a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands.[4] Following her time in Europe, Luu returned to the United States and works on instrumentation as a Senior Scientist at Lincoln Laboratory at MIT.
In December 2004, Luu and Jewitt reported the discovery of crystalline water ice on Quaoar, which was at the time the largest known Kuiper Belt object. They also found indications of ammonia hydrate. Their report theorized that the ice likely formed underground, becoming exposed after a collision with another Kuiper Belt object sometime in the last few million years.[10]
In 2012, she won (along with David C. Jewitt of the University of California at Los Angeles) the Shaw Prize "for their discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long-sought source of short period comets" [11] and the Kavli Prize (shared with Jewitt and Michael E. Brown) “for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system.”.[12]
Personal life
Luu enjoys traveling, and has worked for Save the Children in Nepal. She enjoys a variety of outdoor activities and plays the cello. She met her husband, Ronnie Hoogerwerf, who is also an astronomer, while in Leiden.[4]
Honors, awards and accolades
- 1991 Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy
- 2012 Shaw Prize in Astronomy [13]
- 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics [14]
- The asteroid 5430 Luu is named in her honor.[15]
- She is a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.[16]
Some publishing
- NASA Astrophysics Data System publication listing, Over 200 publications are listing
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- Crystalline Ice on Kuiper Belt Object (50000) Quaoar (article co-written with David Jewitt, published in the December 9, 2004 issue of Nature)
- The Shape Distribution of Kuiper Belt Objects (paper co-written with Pedro Lacerda, June 2003)
- Comet Impact on McMaster (presentation summary, November 2001)
- Accretion in the Early Kuiper Belt I. Coagulation and Velocity Evolution (paper co-written with Scott J. Kenyon, published in May 1998 Astronomical Journal)
- Optical and Infrared Reflectance Spectrum of Kuiper Belt Object 1996 TL66 (paper co-written with D.C. Jewitt, January 1998)
References
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External links
- ↑ Graduate Student Advisees by David Jewitt
- ↑ Hữu Thiện, Jane Lưu lên núi ngắm sao..., Vietnamnet, 2004
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Autobiography of Jane Luu 17 September 2012
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 An Interview With...Jane Luu, 21 March 2003
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 May/June 1998 Feature Alum, Jane Luu, '84. CLASS NOTABLE: JANE LUU, '84, Scoping the Cosmos By Erika Check, '99
- ↑ The Kuiper Belt Michael E. Brown, Physics Today, doi:10.1063/1.1752422
- ↑ University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope - Public Information Richard J. Wainscoat
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ The 2012 Shaw Prize
- ↑ Dresselhaus, Graybiel, Luu receive 2012 Kavli Prizes - MIT News Office
- ↑ The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2012 29 May 2012
- ↑ Kavli Prize 2012
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- Pages with reference errors
- 1963 births
- Living people
- American astronomers
- 20th-century astronomers
- 21st-century astronomers
- Planetary scientists
- Women astronomers
- Discoverers of asteroids
- Discoverers of trans-Neptunian objects
- Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy
- Vietnamese scientists
- Vietnamese astronomers
- Vietnamese emigrants to the United States
- American people of Vietnamese descent
- Academics of Vietnamese descent
- Scientists of Vietnamese descent
- Harvard University faculty
- Leiden University faculty
- American women scientists
- Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters