Rita Sambruna

Rita M. Sambruna is an Italian-American astrophysicist and a Program Scientist in the Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters. She is the Deputy Program Officer for the Astrophysics Data Analysis program. Sambruna held the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University.

Rita Sambruna
Born
Italy
Alma materInternational School for Advanced Studies (MPhil, PhD) University of Milan (Laurea)
AwardsNASA Exceptional Achievement Medal
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics
InstitutionsNational Aeronautics and Space Administration
George Mason University
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Early life and education

A native of Italy, Sambruna obtained her Laurea degree in Physics from the Universitá degli Studi di Milano (University of Milan).[1] She received a MPhil and a PhD in Astrophysics from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) with a thesis featuring the X-ray properties of extragalactic jets observed with ROSAT.[2]

Career

Sambruna held a postdoctoral position at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), in Baltimore, MD, was an NRC Research Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and a Research Associate at the Pennsylvania State University, in State College, PA. She held CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.[1]

From 2000-2005, Sambruna held the Clare Boothe Luce Professorship in Physics and Astronomy at George Mason University, where she was part of the teaching faculty and where she mentored several undergraduate and graduate students in research projects. She was a senior scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center with the Fermi group, conducting research on galaxies, jets, and black holes. [2]

In 2010, she joined NASA Headquarters where she is the Program Scientist for the Physics of the Cosmos Program (PCOS), where she oversees the implementation of the Astrophysics Decadal Survey priorities for PCOS and manages the Strategic Astrophysics Technology program. She is the Program Scientist for the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) gravitational wave observatory. She serves as Deputy Program Officer for the Astrophysics Data Archival Program (ADAP) and is the lead for Strategy for the Astrophysics Division.[2]

She received the NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal in 2019. [3]

Research

Sambruna's astrophysics interests are the study of the condition of matter around supermassive black holes (jets, winds, warm absorbers), which she studied with X-ray and Gamma-ray observatories, including Chandra, XMM-Newton, and Fermi. She now adds gravitational waves as a complement to studies of the Universe in the electromagnetic band.[4]

Sambruna is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Physical Society.

Personal life

In her free time, Sambruna enjoys reading, riding horses, and teaching yoga.[2] She is a certified RYT200 yoga teacher, with specialization in Yoga for Cancer. [4]

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References
  1. "Rita Sambruna". GMU.
  2. "Dr. Rita Sambruna | Science Mission Directorate". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  3. "Rita Sambruna Exceptional Achievement Medal 2019".
  4. "Dr. Rita Sambruna | Science Mission Directorate". science.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-26.

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