Sara Seager
Sara Seager is an astrophysicist, author, and University of Toronto professor who studies distant planets and the possible signs of life in their atmospheres.
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Latest
Sara’s happenings, collected from public sources, plus her backstory and Starbook, where fans write.
Known for
Crown
TED
University of Arizona PressOverview
- From
- Toronto, Canada
- Work
- Astrophysicist, planetary scientist, and author
- Education
- University of Toronto, BSc, 1994; Harvard University, PhD, 1999
- Current role
- North Star Distinguished Professor at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto
- Research focus
- Exoplanet atmospheres and the search for signs of life
Mini bio
A telescope and a question.
Growing up in Toronto, Sara Seager saw the Moon through a telescope at a star party with her father. Astronomy stayed with her. At Harvard, encouraged by her supervisor Dimitar Sasselov, she began studying the atmospheres of newly discovered hot Jupiters while many scientists still doubted what could be learned about them.
Making distant atmospheres measurable.
In 1999, Seager predicted that sodium could be detected in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. Observations confirmed the prediction two years later, helping establish the study of these distant atmospheres. Her work grew to include possible gases produced by life and starshade concepts for seeing faint planets beside bright stars.
Life here, too.
Her 2020 memoir, The Smallest Lights in the Universe, connects her search for other worlds with grief after her husband’s death, raising two sons, and finding connection again. It gives readers a personal way into the questions behind her research.
Back to Toronto.
After her years at MIT, Seager’s next chapter brought her back to the University of Toronto as North Star Distinguished Professor at CITA. Her research connects astronomy with laboratory chemistry and space mission design, including the Morning Star Missions to investigate Venus’s clouds.
Creditschronological, newest first
- 2020The Smallest Lights in the UniverseAuthor
- 2015The search for planets beyond our solar systemTED speaker
- 2011ExoplanetsEditor
Awards
- 2024 Kavli Prize in AstrophysicsShared with David Charbonneau for research on exoplanets and their atmospheres.
- 2020 Officer of the Order of CanadaRecognized for multidisciplinary research that helped establish extrasolar planets as a field of planetary science.
- 2013 MacArthur FellowshipRecognized for her work on exoplanets, their atmospheres, and new approaches to observing them.
Quotes
For exoplanets, anything is possible under the laws of physics and chemistry.Sara Seager, personal biography
Her maxim about the surprising variety of planets beyond our solar system.
Trivia
- As a student, she first imagined that everything could be described by a physics equation; discovering the need for approximations helped steer her toward astronomy.
- Asteroid 9729 is named in her honor.
- At the Institute for Advanced Study, mentor John Bahcall encouraged ideas grounded in sound physics that might become detectable within her lifetime.
Find Sara
Explore her research, books, and conversations about other worlds.
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