Premana Premadi

Premadi was born in Surabaya, East Java on 13 July 1964.^[1] Her father Premadi was a surgeon and her mother Soewarni Premadi was a nurse.^[2] She briefly studied in Palembang for elementary school before continuing her studies in Jakarta.^[3] In an interview, Premadi stated that she was inspired to study astronomy by her high school teachers and from images sent by the Voyager program.^[4] She obtained a bachelor's degree in astronomy from the Bandung Institute of Technology in 1988, and later a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996.^[5] She was the first Indonesian woman to receive a doctorate in astrophysics.^[6][7] According to Premadi, she was also the only woman and Asian studying astrophysics in Austin during her time.^[1] Her dissertation was titled, The Study of Light Propagation in Inhomogeneous Universes Using the Gravitational Lensing Method.^[8] Richard Matzner was Premadi's doctoral advisor and Hugo Martel mentored her.^[8] She was introduced to Matzner by Cécile DeWitt-Morette.^[8]

After completing her doctorate in Texas, she returned to Indonesia and began to lecture astronomy at ITB.^[1] She helped in the curricular development of astronomy there.^[9] She then became head of the Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, West Java in 2018. Under her leadership, the observatory focused on solar observations due to a lack of available equipment.^[10] She has also been involved in the construction of the Timau Observatory in Timor.^[11] She is also active in science outreach, creating the Indonesian branch of Universe Awareness in 2007 to teach astronomy to young children and chairing the organization until 2013.^[4][12][13]

Premadi was chairman of the Indonesian Astronomical Association [id] between 2001 and 2010.^[9] She was made a professor in cosmic structure evolution at ITB in August 2023.^[14]

She is married to Yudi Soeharyadi, a lecturer in mathematics at ITB. In 2010, Premadi was diagnosed with ALS.^[2] She later founded the Indonesian ALS Foundation, and chairs the organization.^[15]

The main belt asteroid 12937 Premadi, discovered in 1960 by C. J. van Houten, was named in her honor in 2017.^[13][16] She was the first female astronomer in Indonesia to have an asteroid named in her honor.^[4] She was awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2023.^[12]