Levin was born to Yiddish-speaking Jewish parents in Texas.[3] Her grandparents were immigrants from Eastern Europe, who eventually gave up keeping kosher.[4][5] She describes her household as mostly not religious (Levin was not brought to synagogue and was not bat mitzvahed). Levin attended Columbia University for her bachelor's degree and MIT for her Ph.D, graduating in 1993. In 2002 she held a research fellowship at Cambridge University (England).[6]
Janna Levin is a professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University with a grant from the Tow Foundation. She researches black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. In addition she is the director of sciences at Pioneer Works.[7][8]
Levin is the author of the popular science book How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space. In 2006, she published A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, a novel of ideas recounting the lives and deaths of Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing.[9]
Her book Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space was published in March, 2016. The book is about the history of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory and the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves.[16] In a review of the book published in The Wall Street Journal, British astrophysicist John Gribbin wrote, "This is a splendid book that I recommend to anyone with an interest in how science works and in the power of human imagination and ability."[17] In January 2018 she hosted Nova's award-winning episode "Black Hole Apocalypse."[18]
Personal life
Levin did not officially graduate from high school, as she was in a serious car accident and hospitalized for a time.[15]
Levin is the parent of two children, a son born in 2004 and a daughter born in 2007. Her partner, Warren, is a musician.[19]
Bibliography
How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space, Orion Publishing Group, 2002