| Authorised form of name | Ostriker; Jeremiah (1937-2025); astrophysicist |
| Dates | 1937-2025 |
| Nationality | American |
| Place of birth | Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York City, USA |
| Date of birth | 13 April 1937 |
| Place of death | New York City, USA |
| Date of death | 6 April 2025 |
| Occupation | Astrophysicist |
| Research field | Cosmology |
| Physics |
| Theoretical astrophysics |
| Cosmic rays |
| Gravitation |
| Black holes |
| Astrophysics |
| Activity | Education:
AB (Harvard) 1959; PhD (Chicago) 164
Career:
Four decades of leadership in astrophysics with many classic papers on pulsars, galactic dynamics, dark matter, cosmic rays, intergalactic gas, cosmic structure formation and cosmology; Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and Director, Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Cambridge (1964-65); Research Associate and Lecturer, Princeton University (1965-6); followed by Assistant Professor (1966-68); then Associate Professor (1968-71); full Professor (1971); Chairman, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University (1979-1995); Director, Princeton University Observatory, Princeton University (1979-1995); Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy, Princeton University (1982-2002); Member of the Editorial Board and Trustee, Princeton University (1982-84; 1986); Visiting Professor, Harvard University (1987); Visiting Miller Professor, University of California-Berkeley (1990); Provost, Princeton University (1995-2001); Trustee, American Museum of Natural History (1997-2007); Plumian Professorship of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy (2001-2004); Distinguished Visitor, Institute for Advanced Study (2004-2005); Director, Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (PICSciE) (2005-2009); Charles A. Young Professor Emeritus, Princeton University (2012); Senior Research Scholar, Princeton University (2012); Professor of Astronomy, Columbia University (2012-2017).
Awards/Medals:
Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy 1972
National Medal of Science 2000
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society 2004
Bruce Medal 2011
James Craig Watson Medal 2012
Memberships:
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
FRAS
American Philosophical Society
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| Membership category | Foreign Member |
| Date of election | 17/05/2007 |
| Age at election | 70 |
| PublishedWorks | RCN R78591 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished for contributions to many topics in astrophysics, including pulsars and black holes, cosmic rays, and how galaxies and quasars form and evolve. He was amongst the first to show that the observed form of galaxies suggests they have a halo of ‘dark matter’ — hypothetical, unobservable matter thought to make up most of the mass of the Universe.
Leader in the area of computer-based numerical simulations of galactic and cosmological phenomena. Later, he used data from the NASA Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe spacecraft and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to determine values of parameters in the current standard model of cosmology, which with Paul Steinhardt and others he was among the first to propose and codify. |
| Source | The Royal Society Fellows Directory, Professor Jeremiah Ostriker ForMemRS, [URL: https://royalsociety.org/people/jeremiah-ostriker-12028/; last accessed: 07/05/2025]
University of Cambridge, Institute of Astronomy, Jeremiah Ostriker (April 13, 1937 – April 6, 2025), [URL: https://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/news/jeremiah-ostriker-april-13-1937-april-6-2025; last accessed: 07/05/2025]
Princeton University, Jeremiah P. Ostiker, [URL: https://www.astro.princeton.edu/people/webpages/jpo/research.htm; last accessed: 07/05/2025] |
| Code | NA9488 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/2007/49 | Ostriker, Jeremiah: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |