Rita M. Sambruna
Rita M. Sambruna | |
|---|---|
 Rita Sambruna | |
| Born | |
| Alma mater | International School for Advanced Studies (MPhil, PhD) University of Milan (Laurea) |
| Awards | NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal Fellow, American Physical Society Fellow, American Astronomical Society |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | National Aeronautics and Space Administration George Mason University |
| h-index = 58 | |
Rita M. Sambruna is an Italian-American astrophysicist and is the Deputy Director of the Astrophysics Science Division at National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center. Sambruna held the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University.
Early life and education[]
A native of Northern Italy, Rita attended the Liceo Classico A. Manzoni in Lecco, graduating with full marks. Her Laurea degree in Physics is from the Universitá degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan).[1] She received a MPhil and a PhD in Astrophysics from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) with a thesis featuring the X-ray properties of extragalactic jets observed with ROSAT.[2]
Career[]
Rita held a postdoctoral position at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, MD, was an NRC Research Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Research Associate at the Pennsylvania State University, in State College, PA. She held a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.[1]
From 2000-2005, Rita was the Clare Boothe Luce Professor in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University, where she was part of the teaching faculty and where she mentored several undergraduate and graduate students in research projects. From 2005, she was a senior scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Fermi group, conducting research on galaxies, jets, and black holes.[2]
In 2010, she joined NASA Headquarters where she served as the Program Scientist for the Physics of the Cosmos Program (PCOS), oversaw the implementation of the Astrophysics Decadal Survey priorities for PCOS and managed the Strategic Astrophysics Technology program. She was the Program Scientist for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) gravitational wave observatory. She served as Deputy Program Officer for the Astrophysics Data Archival Program (ADAP) and was the lead for Strategy for the Astrophysics Division.[2]
Rita Sambruna is currently the Deputy Director of the Astrophysics Science Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.[3]
Research[]
Rita's astrophysics interests include the study of the condition of matter around supermassive black holes (jets, winds, warm absorbers), which she studied with X-ray and Gamma-ray observatories, including Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Fermi. Her research utilizes multi wavelength observations from Hubble and other space and ground-based telescopes, recently adding gravitational waves and other messengers for a broader and deeper understanding of the Universe.[4]
Rita is a member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the High Energy Astrophysics Division of the AAS, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.[5]
Awards and Honors[]
Rita received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2019.[6] In 2020, she was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society[7] In 2021, she was elected Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.[8] In 2021, she received the title of Commendatore dell'Ordine al Merito d' Italia, one of the most prestigious honors in Italy.
Personal life[]
In her free time, Rita enjoys reading, riding horses, and teaching yoga.[2] She is a certified RYT200 yoga teacher, with specialization in Yoga for Cancer.[4] She is also trained in Applied Behavior Analysis and its applications to non-human animals.
References[]
- ^ a b "Rita Sambruna". GMU.
- ^ a b c d "Dr. Rita Sambruna | Science Mission Directorate". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- ^ "Astrophysics Science Division (660) Management Staff".
- ^ a b "Dr. Rita Sambruna | Science Mission Directorate". science.nasa.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-09-05. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
- ^ "APS Member".
- ^ "Rita Sambruna Exceptional Achievement Medal 2019".
- ^ "Rita Sambruna APS Fellow 2020".
- ^ "Rita Sambruna AAS Fellow 2021".
External links[]
- Rita M. Sambruna publications indexed by Google Scholar
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Authority control: Scientific databases  |
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- Living people
- NASA people
- NASA astrophysicists
- Italian emigrants to the United States
- Expatriate academics in the United States
- Italian astrophysicists
- Italian women physicists
- American astronomers
- 20th-century Italian scientists
- 21st-century Italian scientists
- 20th-century American scientists
- 21st-century American scientists
- Women astrophysicists
- Fellows of the American Physical Society
- Fellows of the American Astronomical Society
- 20th-century Italian women
- 21st-century Italian women