Photo: Odile Jacquin / CC BY-SA 3.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Jane Luu is, to me, one of the most quietly monumental figures in modern science. Born in South Vietnam and educated at Stanford, she helped discover and characterize the Kuiper Belt, work that rewrote our understanding of how the solar system came to be. The Kavli Prize and Shaw Prize in 2012, plus the Annie Jump Cannon Award back in 1991, mark her among astronomy's true greats. That a girl who left a war-torn country grew up to map the outer edge of our planetary system is a story that genuinely moves me. She's an asteroid discoverer and a paradigm-shifter, a real pioneer who deserves every bit of recognition.
Overview
Jane X. Luu (Vietnamese: Lưu Lệ Hằng; born July 1963) is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize (shared with David C. Jewitt and Michael Brown) for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system".
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Jane Luu
- Name (Japanese)
- ジェーン・ルー
- Reading
- じぇーん・るー
- Born
- January 1, 1963 (age 63)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Capricorn / Rabbit
- Origin
- South Vietnam, Vietnam
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- astronomer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Stanford University
Awards & achievements
- 2012 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics
- 1991 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy
- 2012 The Shaw Prize in Astronomy
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | discoverer of asteroids | — |
6. Links
Astronomer — see all → · More people from Vietnam →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.