Jane Rigby, lesbian astrophysicist, receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

Astrophysicist Jane Rigby, chief scientist at the world’s most powerful telescope, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday.

The acclaimed scientist, who identifies as a lesbian, was one of 19 people who received the nation’s highest civilian honor at a The White House ceremony.

In a previous interview, Rigby said, “…absolutely I am a better astronomer because I’m queer.”

The medal is “presented to individuals who have made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors,” The White House said in a statement.

In presenting the medal to Rigby, Biden said, “A daughter of the great State of Delaware, Jane Rigby’s passion for astronomy began as a child peering at the stars through a small telescope in a soybean field. Following her instinct and imagination, she has become a pioneering astrophysicist, now managing the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever launched into space.

“A brilliant and prolific author, Dr. Rigby is an inspiration and tireless champion for the LGBTQI+ community,” Biden said. “In both her professional and personal life, Dr. Rigby reminds us to never lose our sense of wonder, hope, and spirit of adventure as Americans.”

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Rigby has received numerous accolades throughout her career, including being named the LGBTQ+ Scientist of the Year in 2022 by Out to Innovate, which recognizes outstanding LGBTQ+ professionals in science, technology, engineering, and math. 

Rigby first came out as a lesbian in 2000. It was still illegal to be gay in Arizona when she moved to the state a few years later for graduate school, Rigby said in an interview with the Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy. That’s the American Astronomical Society’s LGBTQ+ Equality Working Group where Rigby is a founding member.

In that same interview, Rigby explained how “I am a better astronomer because I’m queer.”

• “I see things different than my colleagues,” she said. “On mission work, as we weigh a decision, my first thought is always the community impact: ‘If we do things this way, who benefits, and who gets left out in the cold?’ Will this policy create inclusion, or marginalization? I think about science in terms of community-building. What team do we need to tackle a given science problem, with skills that are different from mine? Absolutely I think that way because I’m an outsider, because I’ve been marginalized. And because community-building is central to LGBTQ culture.”
• “For years, the only leadership training I’d had was as an LGBT activist: asking people what they needed to be successful at a task, thanking them, finding out what motivates them, bundling negative feedback with positive feedback,” she said. “I use those skills every day. As I’ve gotten more senior, I’ve taken some amazing leadership classes. But my basic training in leadership was as an LGBT activist.”
• “I think that surviving as an LGBT person has given me more resilience,” she said. “You said something condescending to me at a meeting? I’ve had Westboro Baptist Church scream at me. I’ve had the legitimacy of my own marriage debated in the Supreme Court of California, and the Supreme Court of the United States. You don’t scare me.”

Rigby is a civil servant astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the senior project scientist at the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope in the world.

She has also done extensive data research for the Keck and Magellan Observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope.

Rigby has a bachelors in psychics, astronomy, and astrophysics from Penn State, and earned her masters and doctorate in astronomy at The University of Arizona.

Rigby lives in Maryland with her wife, Dr. Andrea Leistra, and their child.