NASA astrophysicist opened inaugural Tinsley Workshop
Dr. Jane Rigby presented the Keynote Public Talk on the James Webb Space Telescope to usher in the new lecture series on black holes and galaxies.

Julia Levy, Contributing Photographer
On Sunday, students and faculty from the Science and Humanities departments gathered for the inaugural Tinsley Workshop’s Keynote Public Talk featuring Dr. Jane Rigby, an astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.
Rigby is the senior project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, the largest telescope in space designed to study the universe’s history. Dr. Rigby was awarded LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year in 2022, Nature’s Ten in 2023 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024.
“Telescopes are like time machines,” Rigby explained. “We get to see into the past and other places in the universe … When we talk about telescopes as time machines, we talk about how telescopes collect the light after millions and billions and years.”
Despite the numerous setbacks leading up to its launch date, JWST is considered the most in-demand and powerful telescope globally.
It was specifically designed to examine the earliest-formed stars and galaxies for astronomers to study the time period 100 million years after the universe began.
Professor Priyamvada Natarajan, the chair of the astronomy department, introduced the talk by honoring the workshop’s namesake: the late Beatrice Tinsley, the first Yale female astronomy professor and a leading expert on the evolution of galaxies.
“[Tinsley] is one of the first that said galaxies change with time,” said Pieter van Dokkum, professor of astronomy and physics and member of the workshop’s scientific organizing committee. “I am sure she would have been delighted by this talk.”
During the talk, Rigby shared her favorite science graphic, showing a human’s elemental composition with respect to the universe.
Lighter elements were made at the dawn of the universe and in stars similar to that of our Sun. Heavier elements can originate from stellar explosions called supernovae and mergers of neutron stars.
“Have you ever heard we are all made of stars, we are all made of star-stuff?” Rigby asked at the lecture. “It’s not a metaphor, it’s real. We are all made of elements from a cloud that has coalesced to form stars.”
JSWT observes in a wavelength range from the optical to the mid-infrared for a large range of targets.
Rigby discussed astronomical research surrounding planet habitability. She explained that JSWT is suited for examining the chemical composition of planets’ atmospheres, which gives insight into their ability to harbor life. In the future, scientists would like to search for traces of chlorophyll to assess the presence of life on other worlds.
The Astronomy Department worked with the Franke Program in Science and the Humanities to host the workshop.
“Humankind has an unquenchable thirst for the beautiful and the divine. However, that is ripped across cultures,” Tahia Thaddeus Kamp, the assistant director of the Franke Program, told the News. “The James Webb Space Telescope is revealing to us things that have been buried and shrouded in mystery for all of human history and now we’re coming to light.”
The Tinsley Workshop continues today and tomorrow, with talks on galaxies and black holes in the early universe.
The event schedule can be found here.
Correction, Nov. 18: The article has been updated to accurately reflect Rigby’s quote.