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Rachel Osten

Interim Deputy Director
Rachel Osten headshot

Dr. Rachel Osten is the interim deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), a multi-mission operations center for NASA’s flagship astronomical observatories and a world-class astronomical research center. She provides leadership and vision for all activities at the institute and champions a science-driven approach to support our missions and the communities we serve. STScI, a world-class research facility, conducts science and flight operations for NASA’s flagship astronomical observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, and science operations for both the iconic Hubble Space Telescope and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST) delivers data and enables advancement from these and dozens of other facilities. STScI engages the public with the current scientific discoveries and scientific potential of all these missions.

In 2025, Dr. Osten completed a one-year sabbatical to conduct and publish research. From 2021 to 2025, she served as the head of the institute’s instruments division, leading a team of more than 160 scientific and technical staff to achieve the best possible science from the instruments onboard the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes. The team also ensures the continuation of excellence in science operations and user support for the upcoming Roman Space Telescope. 

From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Osten served as the deputy mission head for the Hubble mission office, where she oversaw and promoted Hubble’s science operations to the astronomy community and the public. Prior to this, she was a mission scientist within the Hubble mission office from 2015 to 2016, and held the role of Webb deputy project scientist from 2013 to 2015. She is also a research scientist at Johns Hopkins University, where she’s held positions since 2011. Dr. Osten joined STScI as an instrument scientist for Hubble’s Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) instrument teams in 2008. She oversaw the first lifetime move of COS, and was instrumental in setting up and overseeing the initial time-dependent sensitivity monitoring for the spectrographs on COS after it was installed on Hubble. Prior to joining the institute, she was a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia, and then a Hubble Fellow who worked both at the University of Maryland, College Park and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Dr. Osten’s science interests include studying the dynamics of the outer atmospheres of nearby stars with the goal of learning more about the processes occurring on them, how they connect to similar events seen on the Sun, and what the implications are for the stellar impact on the environments of extrasolar planets. She uses a nearly panchromatic approach, harnessing arrays of ground-based radio and optical telescopes as well as space-based ultraviolet, and soft and hard X-ray telescopes to perform these observations. She is a prolific and engaging speaker, having given more than 120 scientific presentations at professional conferences and to public audiences. Dr. Osten has authored or co-authored more than 75 peer-reviewed publications.

She has served as co-chair of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics since 2023. From 2022 to 2024 she served as the NASA representative to the European Space Agency’s NewAthena Science Redefinition Team, the next generation large X-ray space mission. She served as the executive officer of the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020) and as a member of the 20-person Astro2020 steering committee. The committee developed a comprehensive research strategy for a decade of transformative science in space and on the ground. Before that, Dr. Osten was a member of the science and technology definition team for the Lynx large mission concept, one of four under consideration during Astro2020. She is also a member of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s science advisory council for the next generation Very Large Array, a concept for a large ground-based successor to the Jansky Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter Array. Dr. Osten is a full member of the American Astronomical Society and International Astronomical Union, and has served on numerous advisory and review committees related to radio astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, and cool stellar science.

Education:

PhD in Astronomy, University of Colorado Boulder
MS in Astronomy, University of Colorado Boulder
AB in Physics and Astronomy, Harvard University

 

Science Interests:

  • Dynamics of cool star atmospheres
  • Multi-wavelength observations of stellar flares
  • Magnetic activity at radio and X-ray wavelengths, from stellar to sub-stellar regimes
  • Observational constraints on extrasolar space weather
  • Spectroscopy of stellar chromospheres and coronae

 

Research Topics: Stellar Astrophysics, Time Domain

 

ORCID ID: 0000-0001-5643-8421