Dr. Jane Rigby

Dr. Jane Rigby, Astrophysicist and Civil Servant
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Observational Cosmology Lab (Code 665)
Phone: (301)-286-1507
Email: Jane.Rigby@nasa.gov
CV (PDF)

Jane Rigby is a NASA astrophysicist. As the Senior Project Scientist for the Webb Telescope, her job is to maximize the scientific return from the most powerful telescope ever built. Her research focuses on how galaxies evolve over cosmic time, by using the techniques of diagnostic spectroscopy and gravitational lensing. She has published more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific papers, is the Principal Investigator of the TEMPLATES JWST Early Release Science program, and is an active user of the JWST, Hubble, Chandra, and Spitzer observatories in space, and the Keck and Magellan observatories on Earth. Before coming to NASA in 2010, Dr. Rigby was a Spitzer Fellow and a Carnegie Fellow at the Carnegie Observatories; she holds PhD and MS degrees in Astronomy from the University of Arizona, and from Penn State a BS degree in Physics and a BS in Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Dr. Rigby was one of the leaders of the team that commissioned the Webb telescope. She received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 2022, and was the 2023 Fred Kavli Prize plenary lecturer for the American Astronomical Society. She was named to Nature's list of ten individuals who shaped science in 2022, and to the BBC's list of 100 inspiring and influential women for 2022.

Dr. Rigby briefed the President and Vice President of the United States on the first JWST science images in July 2022. A dynamic communicator of science, Rigby has given public lectures to large audiences including TEDx, the Library of Congress, and the Huntington Library.