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Jacqueline Hewitt

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Jacqueline Hewitt

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hausen.hawley.schultz
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Jacqueline Hewitt

Jacqueline Nina Hewitt (born September 4, 1958) is


an American astrophysicist. She was the first person to Jacqueline Hewitt
discover an Einstein ring. She is a Fellow of the
American Astronomical Society.

Early life and education


Hewitt was born in Washington, D.C., on September 4,
1958, to parents Warren E. Hewitt, a retired
international lawyer from the State Department, and
Gertrud (Graedel) Hewitt. She attended Bryn Mawr
College where she graduated magna cum laude with a
degree in economics in 1980.[1] Hewitt took an
astronomy class at Haverford College her sophomore
year, which sparked her interest in science. She
Born September 4, 1958
attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for
Washington, D.C.
graduate school. During her graduate studies, she
began studying gravitational lensing using the Very Alma mater Bryn Mawr College
Large Array radio telescope. Hewitt obtained a Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of
in physics in 1986.[2] Some sources erroneously state Technology
that she received her Ph.D. in 1988.[3][4] Awards Annie Jump Cannon Award in
Astronomy
Scientific career
Career Fields Astrophysics

Hewitt was appointed with a postdoctoral fellowship at Thesis A search for gravitational
MIT as part of the Very-long-baseline interferometry lensing (http://www.worldcat.or
g/oclc/15793532) (1986)
unit from 1986 to 1988. While analyzing the data from
her graduate studies, she found a ring on her computer Doctoral Christopher Williams
screen. This ring, part of the gravitational lens system students
MG1131+0456, ended up being the very first Einstein
ring discovered. Since Hewitt's groundbreaking discovery, many other Einstein rings have been
discovered, and were found to be far more common than astronomers thought. Einstein rings are
important because they can help answer questions about the size and the fate of our universe. Hewitt
worked as a researcher at Princeton University's Department of Astrophysical Sciences in 1988. After one
year of researching at Princeton, she returned to MIT as an assistant physics professor, working as a full-
time professor since 1989. Hewitt is also the principal investigator for the Radio Astronomy Group of the
Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT.[3][4] Since 2002, Hewitt has been appointed Director of the
MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.[5]

Honors
In 1990, Hewitt won the David and Lucile Packard Foundation fellowship. For her work on gravitational
lenses, her colleagues at MIT nominated her for the 1995–1996 Harold E. Edgerton Award. In 1995,
Hewitt was the recipient of the Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award[3][4] and in 1989 the Annie J. Cannon
Award in Astronomy for her work in radio astronomy.

She was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.[6]

Personal life
Hewitt has two children: Keith Hewitt Redwine, born in 1988, and Jonathan Hewitt Redwine, born in
1993.[3][4]

References
1. "Hewitt takes the controls at Center for Space Research" (https://news.mit.edu/2002/hewitt).
MIT News. Retrieved 2019-03-16.
2. Hewitt, Jacqueline. "Jacqueline Hewitt" (http://web.mit.edu/physics/people/faculty/hewitt_jac
queline.html). MIT. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
3. Oakes, Elizabeth H. (2002). International encyclopedia of women scientists (https://archive.
org/details/internationalenc00oake). New York, NY: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-4381-7.
4. Proffitt, Pamela (1999). Notable women scientists (https://archive.org/details/notablewomen
scie00pame). Detroit [u.a.]: Gale Group. ISBN 0-7876-3900-1.
5. "MIT Kavli Institute Directory | MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research" (htt
p://space.mit.edu/people/hewitt-jacqueline-n). space.mit.edu. Retrieved 2016-06-15.
6. "AAS Fellows" (https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/aas-fellows). AAS. Retrieved
29 September 2020.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacqueline_Hewitt&oldid=1217143354"

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