Rebecca Oppenheimer

Rebecca Oppenheimer serves as Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University and as Curator and Professor in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). She received her B.A. in Physics from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1994, and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1999, with a thesis on “Brown Dwarf Companions of Nearby Stars.” After her Ph.D., she was a NASA Hubble Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and AMNH from 1999 to 2002. She then held the Kalbfleisch Research Fellowship at AMNH from 2002 to 2004. At AMNH, she progressed from Assistant Curator (2004–2008) to Associate Curator (2008–2013) and Curator since 2013. Her adjunct positions at Columbia University include Adjunct Assistant Professor (2004–2008), Adjunct Associate Professor (2008–2013), and Adjunct Professor since 2013.

Dr. Oppenheimer is a comparative exoplanetary scientist specializing in the direct imaging and characterization of planets around other stars, brown dwarfs, and white dwarfs. Her optics laboratory at AMNH has pioneered instruments such as the most sensitive coronagraph deployed at the AEOS Telescope in 2004 and Project 1640 at Palomar Observatory in 2008, which enabled the first complete reconnaissance of the HR 8799 planetary system in 2013. She is the co-discoverer of the first brown dwarf, Gliese 229B, and performed the initial spectroscopic studies of its atmosphere. Notable publications include “Discovery of a cool brown dwarf” (Nakajima et al., Nature, 1995), “Near IR spectrum of the cool brown dwarf GL 229B” (Oppenheimer et al., Science, 1995), “Reconnaissance of the HR 8799 Exosolar System I: Near IR Spectroscopy” (Oppenheimer et al., ApJ, 2013), and contributions to the Gemini Planet Imager project. She has authored over 300 peer-reviewed papers and holds several patents. Her research has impacted the design of instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope, Roman Space Telescope, and Habitable Worlds Observatory. Awards include the Blavatnik Award for Young Scientists (2009), Hubble Fellowship, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She has served on advisory committees for NASA, NSF, and international observatories.

Professional Email: roppenheimer@amnh.org