Sara Seager

Sara Seager (born July 21, 1971) is a Canadian-American astronomer and planetary scientist. As of October 1, 2026 she is the North Star Distinguished Professor at her alma mater the University of Toronto, in the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), having previously spent 20 years as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seager is known for her work on extrasolar planets and their atmospheres. She is the author of two textbooks on these topics, and has been recognized for her research by Popular Science, Discover Magazine, Nature, and TIME Magazine. Seager was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 citing her theoretical work on detecting chemical signatures on exoplanet atmospheres and developing low-cost space observatories to observe planetary transits.