Jeremiah Paul Ostriker is an astrophysicist and a professor of astronomy at Columbia University and is the Charles A Young Professor Emeritus at Princeton where he also continues as a Senior Research Scholar. Ostriker has also served as a University administrator as Provost of Princeton University. He was born on April 13, 1937 in New York City, New York, United States. He earned his bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry at Harvard University and his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Ostriker has been very influential in advancing the theory that most of the mass in the universe is not visible at all, but consists of dark matter. His research has also focused on the interstellar medium, galaxy evolution, cosmology and black holes. On June 20, 2013 Ostriker was given the White House Champions of Change Award for his role in initiating the Sloan Digital Sky Survey project, which makes all of its astronomical data sets available publicly on the Internet. In 2000, he received the National Medal Of Science by by U.S. President Bill Clinton.