Kristen Sellgren
Kristen Sellgren is an American retired astronomer and Professor Emerita at the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Ohio State University. She won the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 1990. She is the founder of American Astronomical Society's Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy.
Education and career
Sellgren graduated from the University of California, San Diego in 1976 with a BA in physics. She obtained a PhD in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1983 under the advisement of B.T. Soifer and Gerry Neugebauer. Her graduate thesis was entitled Near Infrared Studies of Reflection Nebulae. Her areas of expertise include the galactic center of the Milky Way, interstellar dust, and infrared astronomy generally.After graduating with her bachelor's degree, Sellgren completed a summer research fellowship at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. After receiving her doctorate, she took a postdoctoral research position at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1984, Sellgren joined the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaiʻi first as assistant astronomer, and then in 1989, as associate astronomer.
Since 1990, Sellgren has held several appointments at Ohio State University beginning with assistant professor. She was later named associate professor in 1994, and then reached full professorship in 2000 before entering into emerita status in 2011. Also in the year 2000, Sellgren served briefly as visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin.