Rate My Professor Wendy Freedman

Wendy L. Freedman is the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, a position she has held since joining the faculty in 2014. She received her BSc in 1979, MSc in 1980, and PhD in Astronomy in 1984, all from the University of Toronto. Prior to the University of Chicago, Freedman was a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Observatories from 1984 to 1987, joined the permanent scientific staff in 1987, and served as the Crawford H. Greenewalt Director from 2003 to 2014. Her research in observational cosmology focuses on precise measurements of the Hubble constant, the current expansion rate of the universe, using the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope, and Magellan telescopes. She led the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project, resulting in the 2001 paper 'Final Results from the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project to Measure the Hubble Constant' published in The Astrophysical Journal, which established the universe's age at approximately 13.7 billion years. Current efforts include the Carnegie-Chicago Hubble Program, probing tensions between local Hubble constant measurements and cosmic microwave background inferences, as well as studies of dark energy, galaxy evolution, stellar populations, and the initial mass function.

Freedman spearheaded the international consortium for the Giant Magellan Telescope as founding chair of its Board of Directors from 2003 to 2015. Her contributions have earned her the National Medal of Science (2025), Franklin Institute Award in Physics (2026), Georges Lemaître International Prize (2024), Gruber Cosmology Prize (2009), Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (2016), and recognition in Nature’s 10 (2024). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Physical Society. Within the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, she chairs committees on Appointments and Promotions, Giant Magellan Telescope, Budget and Policy, Awards, and the Adler Visiting Committee. Freedman has delivered public lectures, including the Ryerson Lecture ‘Our Expanding Universe’ in 2023. In Space Science, her work has profoundly shaped understandings of cosmic expansion and fundamental cosmological parameters.