I am a full professor of Astronomy at the Astronomy department of the University of Virginia (UVa) . My pronouns are (she/her/hers).
I was faculty at New York University for 11 years (from 2011-2022) and moved to UVa in 2022. For my work, I was honored to receive the Ludwig-Biermann-Award (an early career award) of the German Astronomical Society at their annual meeting in September 2010. I finished a Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowship in the astronomy department at Columbia University for 2010-2011 and a Miller Postdoctoral Fellowship in Astronomy at UC Berkeley. At UC Berkeley, I collaborated with Prof. Alex Filippenko and Prof. Josh Bloom, and their respective groups. In 2007, I completed my PhD at Harvard University Department of Astronomy, working with Prof. Bob Kirshner. I was awarded the Fireman Prize from the Harvard Astronomy Department for outstanding dissertation work. For my PhD thesis, I studied the explosions of massive stars in order to comprehensively characterize the class of stripped-envelope supernovae due to core-collapse and to illuminate the SN-GRB connection. At the CfA, I was part of the Supernova Group at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Honors, Awards, and Grants
- NOTE: The list below is only current as of 2016 – see my CV (above) for updated list
- August 2016 NYU Seed Grant (2016-2018)
- June 2014 NSF grant (2014-2017)
- Feb 2014 NSF CAREER award for early-career faculty (2014-2019; NYU press release)
- Sep 2010 German Astronomical Society: Ludwig-Biermann (early-career) award (equivalent to AAS’ Newton Lacy Pierce Prize)
- Feb 2010 Postdoctoral Fellowships: Hubble, NOAO Goldberg (declined), ESO (declined)
- Dec 2007 Grand Poster Prize at IAU Symposium 250: “Massive Stars as Cosmic Engines”
- 2007 Fireman Award for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Astronomy, Harvard University
- 2006 Harvard Graduate Student Council Conference Award
- 2006 AAS International Travel Grant
- 2002, 2003, 2005 Certificates of Distinction in Teaching, Harvard University
- 2002 NRAO Student Grant
- 2000 Dorothea Klumpke Roberts Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Astronomy, UC Berkeley
- 2000 Commencement Speech, Physics & Astronomy Department, UC Berkeley
- 2000 High Honors, UC Berkeley
- 1997 – 2000 Golden Key National Honor Society
- 1996 & 1999 UC Berkeley Dean’s Honor List
Contact
The best way to reach me is via email: mmodjaz(at)virginia.edu
Dr. Maryam Modjaz
Astronomy Department
McCormick Rd, Charlottesville, VA 22904