Margaret Murray Hanson

Margaret M. Hanson (née Murray) is an American astronomer and academic at the University of Cincinnati where she is Associate Dean for Natural Sciences. She has been serving as an academic administrator since 2011, most recently as the Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

From 2005 to 2012, she served as Associate Editor-in-Chief for The Astronomical Journal,

In 2011, she moved to the Graduate School to serve as Associate University Dean at the University of Cincinnati. This same year she was named a Legacy (inaugural) Fellow of the American Astronomical Society.

Research Hanson's research interest is in observational (experimental) astronomy. Over her astronomy career, this has included observing and publishing research at ultraviolet, optical, infrared, millimeter and centimeter wavelengths, where she has studied extragalactic, galactic, interstellar and stellar phenomenon. Her most recent research used infrared spectroscopy of hot, massive stars to accurately characterize the atmosphere of these unique stars and to search for massive stellar clusters found deeply embedded within the Milky Way Galaxy.

In late 2024, her publications had an h-index of 36.

Awards and honors

1995: Hubble Post-Doctoral Research Fellow (Steward Observatory) University of Arizona 2001: National Science Foundation CAREER Awardee 2002: Edith C. Alexander Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Cincinnati 2003: Science & Technology Award, Leading Women of Cincinnati 2011: Elected Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society 2020: Elected (Legacy) Fellow, American Astronomical Society

Select publications Dickey, J. M., Hanson, M. M., & Helou, G. (1990). NGC 1058-Gas motions in an extended, quiescent spiral disk. Astrophysical Journal, 352, 522–531. Hanson, M. M., Conti, P. S., & Rieke, M. J. (1996). A spectral atlas of hot, luminous stars at 2 microns. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 107, 281. Hanson, M. M., Howarth, I. D., & Conti, P. S. (1997). The young massive stellar objects of M17. The Astrophysical Journal, 489(2), 698. Hanson, M. M. (2003). A Study of Cygnus OB2: Pointing the Way toward Finding Our Galaxy's Super-Star Clusters. The Astrophysical Journal, 597(2), 957. Hanson, M. M., Kudritzki, R. P., Kenworthy, M. A., Puls, J., & Tokunaga, A. T. (2005). A medium resolution near-infrared spectral atlas of O and early-B stars. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 161(1), 154. Najarro, F., Hanson, M.M., Puls, J. (2011) L-band Spectroscopy of Galactic OB-Stars, Astronomy & Astrophysics 535, A32 Popescu, B., Hanson, M.M., Elmegreen, B.G. (2012) Age and Mass for 920 LMC Clusters Derived from 100 Million Monte Carlo Simulations, The Astrophysical Journal 751 (2), 122.