Janice C. Lee

Dr. Janice C. Lee has held leadership positions at three major US science centers to enable excellence in astronomy research world-wide. She currently serves as the STScI Project Scientist for Strategic Initiatives and is working to help advance the upcoming “Super-Hubble” mission – NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). She co-chairs the NASA Evolution of the Elements Working Group, which is developing science cases for HWO. She previously served as Deputy Lead for Communications and Education at IPAC/Caltech, and Chief Scientist at Gemini/NOIRLab. 

J.C. Lee began her career in STEM education and policy, and returned to school to pursue research in astronomy. She graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Mathematics and a MA in Teaching. She holds a MA in Astronomy from Wesleyan University, and a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Arizona. She was awarded Hubble and Carnegie prize fellowships to support her postdoctoral research at NOAO and Carnegie Observatories. 

J.C. Lee is an expert on star formation in nearby galaxies. She is an author of over 150 papers and has been an editor of 3 books. She is particularly interested in the application of machine learning techniques to problems in observational astronomy, and using the extreme environments of low mass dwarf galaxies, galaxy outskirts, starbursts, and star clusters as observational laboratories. The core of her research is based on large, multi-wavelength imaging surveys of nearby galaxies that she has led or co-led over the past 15 years: the 11 Mpc Halpha & Ultraviolet Galaxy Survey; Spitzer Local Volume Legacy Survey (LVL), and the HST Legacy ExtraGalactic Ultraviolet Survey (LEGUS). She is leading Hubble and JWST Treasury surveys for the PHANGS collaboration (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS), which has completed the largest census to-date of 100,000 star clusters and associations in 38 nearby spiral galaxies. In 2025, her team’s JWST observations of the Phantom Galaxy (NGC 628) were commemorated on a US Postal Service stamp.

Education:

PhD in Astronomy, University of Arizona
MA in Astronomy, Wesleyan University
BA in Mathematics and MA in Teaching, Cornell University

Research Topics: Star Formation, Histories, and Evolution, Galaxy Formation and Evolution, Interstellar Medium, Stellar Populations, Star Clusters

Professional Websites:

LinkedIn: Janice C. Lee

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-2278-9407