Prof. Anna Frebel serves as Head of the Astrophysics Division of the Physics Department. She is an observational astronomer and astrophysicist with a focus on discovering the oldest stars in the Milky Way and its various satellites dwarf galaxies. She primarily carries out her observational research with the 6.5-m Magellan telescopes in Chile.

Frebel is best known for her discoveries and subsequent spectroscopic analyses of the ancient 12-13 billion year old most metal-poor stars. Her research interests broadly cover the chemical and physical conditions of the early universe and how old, metal-deficient stars can be used to obtain clues and constraints on the first stars and initial mass function, supernova yields and metal mixing, and the origin of the elements and associated stellar light and heavy-element nucleosynthesis processes that operated across the early universe.

As an expert in the fields of stellar archaeology and near-field cosmology, this helps her to understand how our Galaxy formed and evolved into what is observed today.  Frebel received her PhD from the Australian National University’s Mt. Stromlo Observatory in 2007, and did postdoctoral work as a WJ McDonald Fellow in Austin, TX (2006-2008) and as Clay Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA), in Cambridge, MA (2009-2012). She has received numerous honors and awards including the 2010 Annie Jump Cannon Award (American Astronomical Society), a 2013 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, and in 2016 she was named one of ScienceNews Magazine’s “Ten Scientists to Watch”.

Anna Frebel was named an American Physical Society Fellow in 2022 for “pioneering contributions to the study of low-metallicity stars, near-field cosmology, and the r-process in astrophysics.”  She has authored more than 160 papers in various refereed journals, including Nature and Science. She also enjoys communicating science to the public through regular public lectures, magazine articles, interviews as well as her popular science book “Searching for the oldest stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe” (Princeton University Press).

Since 2020, Frebel has been teaching her leadership program for grad students and postdocs at MIT (8.396/8/397). The “Leadership and Professional Strategies and Skills” (LEAPS) program addresses various academic challenges and opportunities in a practical fashion and prepares emerging scientists for their future careers. She is also leading spin-off versions for undergrads (Graduate Applications and Professional Strategies – GAPS) and for MIT junior faculty.