Often regarded as a compilation of the world’s most visible politicians, artists and cultural figures, this year’s “100 Most Influential People” list from TIME Magazine includes a Chicagoan.
Wendy Freedman, the John and Marion Sullivan University Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago, was named to the 2025 list from TIME.
Freedman was hailed by the publication for her work to measure the speed of the expansion of the universe, known as the Hubble Constant.
According to the university, Freedman specializes in estimating the distance of far-off galaxies by observing the brightness of their supernovae and calibrating the brightness-to-distance relationship.
In January, Freedman was awarded the National Medal of Science, the country’s highest scientific honor. Throughout her career, she has also received the Magellanic Premium, the Gruber Cosmology Prize and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics.
Freedman led a team that made a landmark measurement of universe expansion in 2001, in what was known as the Hubble Key Project, according to the University of Chicago.
Last summer, Freedman released new results on readings from the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope.
A full look at the 2025 list from TIME can be found here.
