Commencement Speaker

2026 Commencement Speaker

Jennifer Wiseman

Dr. Jennifer Wiseman is a nationally renowned astrophysicist, author and speaker who studies the process of star and planet formation in our galaxy using radio, optical and infrared telescopes. She studied physics at MIT, co-discovering comet Wiseman-Skiff in 1987, and continued in astronomy for her doctoral research at Harvard.  She has worked with several international observatories and is currently a senior astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, where she serves as the Senior Project Scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope mission.

Dr. Wiseman is also interested in national science policy and public science engagement. She served as a U.S. Congressional Science Fellow, and she is the Director Emeritus of the program of Dialogue on Science, Ethics and Religion (DoSER) for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Wiseman is an elected Fellow of the AAAS and also of the American Scientific Affiliation, a network of Christians in Science. She enjoys giving talks on the excitement of astronomy and scientific discovery and has appeared in many science and news venues, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NOVA and National Public Radio. Dr. Wiseman grew up on a small farm in the Ozark Mountains of rural Arkansas and loves animals, forests, night skies and exploring nature. 

Messiah University is pleased to welcome Dr. Wiseman to share her journey and her reflections of her faith and vocation with the undergraduate Class of 2026.