Jennifer Bergner

Jennifer Bergner’s research focuses on the chemistry in protostars and protoplanetary disks, the evolutionary progenitors of planetary systems, in order to learn about how volatile/organic material is inherited during the star and planet formation process. She is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago’s Department of the Geophysical Sciences. 

She previously completed her PhD at Harvard University and was advised by Karin Öberg. Her research uses a variety of approaches to explore how molecules are formed and inherited throughout the stages of star formation: millimeter telescope observations of protostars and protoplanetary disks, laboratory experiments of chemistry in astrophysical ice analogs, and simulations of protoplanetary disk chemistry.