UF astronomer Elizabeth Lada named astronomical fellow

The American Astronomical Society (AAS), a major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers, has named University of Florida Professor and Chair of Astronomy Elizabeth Lada a AAS Fellow.

Lada joins 21 other new fellows recognized for original research and publications, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and to the society itself.

The society is honoring Lada for her work studying star and planet formation. Lada pioneered the use of infrared detectors that can study hidden populations of young stars. She has also researched the giant molecular clouds from which stars condense and form, and she has gone on to study the circumstellar disks of material that give rise to planets.

Lada received her PhD from the University of Texas in 1990 and joined the faculty of UF in 1996 after working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and a Hubble Fellow at the University of Maryland. In 1999, she received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Founded in 1899, the AAS is dedicated to enhancing and sharing humanity’s scientific understanding of the universe through scientific journals, science advocacy and education and outreach.