Dr. Jenny Bergner

Biography

Jenny received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Virginia in 2013 and completed her PhD at Harvard University in 2019. She was a NASA Sagan postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago before joining the University of California, Berkeley as an Assistant Professor in 2023. Her research interests focus on volatile chemistry associated with star and planet formation, investigating the shapes, compositions, properties, and potential habitability of newly formed planetary systems. She employs telescope facilities like ALMA and JWST to explore molecular reservoirs in protostars and protoplanetary disks, aiming to understand the underlying physical processes driving astrochemical evolution. Additionally, she conducts laboratory experiments to characterize the microphysical behavior of molecules under extremely low temperature and pressure conditions that are relevant to star-forming environments.

Research Interests