Yun Wang is a poet and professor of astrophysics

Astrophysics

Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...

 specializing in cosmology

Physical cosmology

Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...

. She is originally from Gaoping

Gaoping, Guizhou

Gaoping is a small town in the mountains near Zunyi, in Guizhou province, People's Republic of China.It is near the Moutai brewery, where Maotai rice liquor is brewed....

, a small town near Zunyi

Zunyi

Zunyi is a prefecture-level city in Guizhou province in southwestern China. Along with Guiyang and Liupanshui, it is one of the most important cities of the province...

, in Guizhou Province, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. Her poetry books include The Carp from Bull Thistle Press, and The Book of Jade (ISBN 1-58654-023-8) from Story Line Press.

Professional work in astrophysics

Yun Wang received a bachelor's degree

Bachelor's degree

A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...

 in physics from Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University

Tsinghua University , colloquially known in Chinese as Qinghua, is a university in Beijing, China. The school is one of the nine universities of the C9 League. It was established in 1911 under the name "Tsinghua Xuetang" or "Tsinghua College" and was renamed the "Tsinghua School" one year later...

 in Beijing

Beijing

Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

, after which she came to the United States and obtained her master's and doctorate (also in physics) from Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

. Currently Associate Professor in the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

's Department of Physics and Astronomy, she has published around 80 refereed papers, most recently specializing on probing the dark energy

Dark energy

In physical cosmology, astronomy and celestial mechanics, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted theory to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding...

 in the Universe, with particular attention to the use of supernovae and galaxy redshift surveys as cosmological probes, studies of the cosmic microwave background anisotropy, and the measurement of cosmological parameters.

Yun Wang is an internationally acknowledged leader in exploring dark energy. She has developed strategies for optimizing future surveys to probe dark energy, and created a mission concept for the NASA-DOE Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM), the Joint Efficient Dark-energy Investigation (JEDI), and served as the Principal Investigator of JEDI. The JEDI/JDEM mission concept illustrates the extraordinary efficiency achievable through innovative instrumentation, and the great scientific advantages of combining three independent observational methods (galaxy clustering, weak lensing, and supernovae) to probe dark energy. Her work on JEDI has significantly impacted the design of space missions to probe dark energy.

Her technical monograph

• "Dark Energy" (ISBN 978-3-527-40941-9) has been published by Wiley in 2010. This book has been adopted by the Scientific American Book Club.

Her five most-cited recent papers are the following (with citations from SPIRES

Spires

Spires may refer to:* SPIRES, a database for publications in High-Energy Physics* Speyer , a city in Germany* The Spires, a commercial conference centre, operated out of Church House, Belfast by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland...

): (Times Cited: 221) (Times Cited: 211) (Times Cited: 154) (Times Cited: 134) (Times Cited: 127)

External links

• Yun Wang's home page at the University of Oklahoma