Yale Astronomy Department

02/06/2026

Yale Astrophysics undergrads Yu-Ting Chang & Lucas Zimmermann (YASSS Co-Presidents) and the Yale Astronomical & Space Student Society are looking to raise $2,500 to purchase telescopes and astrophotography equipment, and help fund the dark-sky trip, allowing their members and the Yale/New Haven communities experience the wonders of the night sky up close. An investment in this equipment would last over a decade and enable them to extend their outreach to local schools, inspiring the next generation of astronomers. 💫✨🌔🔭

Please share and help if you can!
https://givetoday.yale.edu/schools/YaleUniversity/yalesoar/pages/yale-astronomical-space-student-society-s-telescopes-and-dark-sky-trip-fundraiser/?a=1

01/20/2026

Congratulations to Ray Jayawardhana ’94—one of Yale’s standout astronomy and physics majors of the early 1990s who has been named the 10th president of the California Institute of Technology, assuming the role on July 1, 2026.

A Yale College graduate with a B.S. in astronomy and physics, Jayawardhana has gone on to become a leading astrophysicist and academic statesman. He currently serves as the chief academic officer of Johns Hopkins University and is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy, widely respected for his work on stars and exoplanets as well as for bringing science to broader public audiences.

Those who knew him in the Yale Department of Astronomy are unsurprised. As Professor Emeritus Richard Larson recalls: "I knew Ray Jayawardhana (‘RayJay’) very well when he was an Astronomy major at Yale between 1990 and 1994. He was an exceedingly enterprising student from Sri Lanka and our best student at the time. He was unstoppable as a Yale student and has been unstoppable ever since.”

From his days as a driven Yale undergraduate to the presidency of one of the world’s premier scientific institutions, Jayawardhana’s trajectory reflects the kind of intellectual ambition and leadership that Yale takes pride in.

10/10/2025

Congratulations to Kareem El-Badry, '16 (Astrophysicist), and Nabarun Dasgupta (Epidemiologist) ’03 M.P.H., Kristina Douglass (Archaeologist) ’16 Ph.D. on receiving the MacArthur 'genius' Fellowship! 💫✨

Nabarun Dasgupta ’03 M.P.H., Kristina Douglass ’16 Ph.D., and Kareem El-Badry ’16 are among 22 recipients of 2025 MacArthur Fellowships.

08/12/2025

🚀💻💫The AstroCodEx team is excited to host a 2-day workshop here at Yale to further develop the AstroCodEx (https://astrocodex.github.io/intro.html) and discuss creative teaching strategies and pedagogy. The workshop will be for educators (including teaching fellows) to build on your own exercises or develop new exercises and receive constructive peer feedback on them. The meeting will take place on Thursday August 21 to Friday August 22 from 9am to 5pm in KT 101. Information and the schedule is available here: https://astrocodex.github.io/hackday.html.

As a part of the discussion on teaching and pedagogy, there will be sessions for short presentations. These presentations will be informal and about 5-10 minutes. Presentations can be submitted in the registration form. All contributions are welcome!

Please register at this link https://forms.gle/D198Dt47aFNyNcRR6 by Thursday August 14 so that we may get an accurate headcount for coffee and lunch.

Thank you for your interest!

The AstroCodEx Team ✨ (Imad Pasha, Kendra Nguyen, Malena Rice, and Yasmeen Asali)