Barbara Ryden

Barbara Sue Ryden is an American astrophysicist who is a Professor of Astronomy at Ohio State University. Her research considers the formation, shape and structure of galaxies. She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2016.

Early life and education Ryden studied physics and integrated sciences at Northwestern University. She then went to Princeton University as a doctoral student, where she worked alongside James Gunn as her advisor. She was then a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian and Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics.

Research and career A member of the Ohio State University faculty since 1992, Prof. Ryden studies the formation, alignment, and shapes of galaxies, and the large-scale structure of the universe, and cosmology, including tests for dark energy, dark matter, and the properties of the primordial density fluctuations. She is internationally known for her textbook Introduction to Cosmology, which won the first Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award with Prof. Bradley Peterson, a beginning-level text in astrophysics for astronomy majors. She currently editor in chief of the Ohio State Astrophysics Series, a series of graduate level textbooks now in contract with Cambridge University Press. The first two volumes are Interstellar & Intergalactic Medium by Prof. Ryden and Prof. Richard Pogge (2021) and Stellar Structure & Evolution by Prof. Marc Pinsonneault and Prof. Ryden (2022).

Awards and honors 2016 Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2006 American Astronomical Society Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award for her book Introduction to Cosmology 1993-1998 National Science Foundation National Young Investigators Award 1990-1991 Summer Program for Young Investigators in Cosmology 1986-1987 Jacobus Honorary Fellow, Princeton University 1983-1986 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow 1982 Phi Beta Kappa

Selected publications

Unterborn, C. T., & Ryden, B. S. (2008). "Inclination‐dependent extinction effects in disk galaxies in the sloan digital sky survey". The Astrophysical Journal, 687(2), 976–985.

Books Introduction to Cosmology. Barbara Ryden, 2003, San Francisco: Addison Wesley. Foundations of Astrophysics. Barbara Ryden & Bradley M. Peterson, 2010, San Francisco: Addison Wesley. Introduction to Cosmology, International Edition. Barbara Ryden, 2014, Harlow, Essex, England: Pearson Education Limited. Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium [eBook]. Barbara Ryden & Richard Pogge, 2015, The Ohio State University. Dynamics [eBook]. Barbara Ryden, 2016, The Ohio State University. Introduction to Cosmology, Second Edition. Barbara Ryden, 2017, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Introduction to Cosmology, Chinese Edition. Barbara Ryden, 2019, Beijing: Peking University Press. Foundations of Astrophysics [reprint]. Barbara Ryden & Bradley M. Peterson, 2021, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Interstellar and Intergalactic Medium. Barbara Ryden & Richard Pogge, 2021, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Stellar Structure and Evolution. Marc Pinsonneault & Barbara Ryden, 2023, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Astrophysical Gas Dynamics. Barbara Ryden, 2026, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, in preparation.