Malena Rice

Malena Rice, PhD, is a planetary astrophysicist and professor of Astronomy at Yale University. Her research centers on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, spanning topics including exoplanets, stars, and the outer solar system. She received her B.A. degrees in Physics and Astrophysics at UC Berkeley in 2017 before completing her Ph.D. in Astronomy at Yale University in 2022. Prof. Rice has authored over 100 academic publications and has been named a Heising-Simons 51 Pegasi b Fellow, a National Geographic Explorer, a Scialog Fellow, a Rising Talent by the Women’s Forum for the Economy & Society, and a member of the Forbes 30 Under 30 List. She is a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with Yale University.