Debra Fischer

Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences 

Debra Fischer, B.S. University of Iowa, M.S. San Francisco State, Ph.D. University of California, Santa Cruz, faculty member at Yale since 2009: Innovative investigator, you have achieved the dream of many of those who look at the stars with wonder but who have not the ambition to be a pioneer. You are a “planet hunter,” one of the first and most impactful exoplanet researchers, working to improve methods for finding Earth-like planets orbiting nearby stars and uncovering how our solar system was formed. We now know of hundreds of extrasolar planets —and you and your team have discovered 186 of them. You are also an inventor, working on new instruments, such as a cutting-edge high-precision spectrograph that will discover and characterize some of the smallest exoplanets to date. 

In addition to your astronomical discoveries, your nearly 300 peer-reviewed articles in astronomy or instrumentation journals, your multiple book chapters, and your co-authored online textbook Origins and the Search for Life in the Universe attest to the substance and reach of your accomplishment. 

You also have fulfilled another dream of many young people: explorer of the skies, you are nevertheless working to save our home ground. You co-founded Astronomers for Planet Earth, a grassroots movement of astronomers who engage the public on climate change, whose motto is “There is no Planet B.” You note that your group has “the subject expertise without the public distrust that climate scientists face.” Your movement is working to address climate change in astronomy classrooms, planetariums, and amateur astronomy groups. 

A first-generation college student,you worked your way through on your own. First you received a nursing degree and became an operating nurse for open-heart surgery. This experience led you to consider medical school and you took evening classes while working full time to achieve that dream. Eventually you “stumbled” on an astronomy class – and the rest is history, lucky for you, luckier still for your field. 

Astronomy is a science of collaboration, and as a well-regarded and highly sought-after National Academy scientist, you have served on many important science policy committees, including as division director for astronomical sciences with the National Science Foundation. You were also the co-chair for the NASA study of LUVOIR, a 12- to 16-meter space telescope concept to accelerate exoplanet research. You also have been a tireless proponent of working to advance diversity and inclusion in science and have always helped create pathways for others. 

Through all of this, you have not neglected Yale! An engaged explainer, whose lifelong push to find “100 Earths” has motivated many young people to search for planets around other stars, and for signs of life on those planets, you have generously served the university. You were a devoted teacher here and you served a term as dean of academic affairs for the FAS. 

“Keep your feet on the ground and your eyes on the stars,” the saying goes. You have done both, Debra Fischer, and as you retire, Yale thanks you, watcher of the skies, and hopes you will find continuing and enduring joy in your work on the poetry of the heavens.