Biography

Dr. Jensen received his B.S. from Caltech and his Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Hawaii. Before joining UVU, he worked for 12 years at the international Gemini Observatory. Dr. Jensen is an infrared observational astronomer who studies the stellar populations of galaxies and the extragalactic distance scale.

Education

PhD, University of Hawaii, 1997

Major: Astronomy

MS, University of Hawaii, 1995

Major: Astronomy

BS, California Institute of Technology, 1992

Major: Astronomy

Teaching

ASTR 1040

Elementary Astronomy, Spring 2026

ASTR 1040

Elementary Astronomy, Spring 2026

PHYS 3120

Modern Physics II, Spring 2026

PHYS 4890R

Undergraduate Research in Physics, Spring 2026

Presentations

Jensen, Joseph (Presenter Only), Bruno@65 and the Hubble constant @?, "An Update on the Hubble Constant from Surface Brightness Fluctuations", European Southern Observatory, Garching, Munich, Germany. (April 8, 2025)
Jensen, Joseph (Presenter Only), An Extraordinary Journey Into The Transient Sky, "Calibrating Type Ia Supernovae using Surface Brightness Fluctuations", INAF, University of Padova, Padova, Italy. (April 3, 2025)
Jensen, Joseph (Panelist), ISSI workshop on the Hubble Constant, "The TRGB-SBF Project_ Addressing the Hubble tension with a distance ladder independent of Cepheids", ISSI, Bern, Switzerland. (March 25, 2025)
Jensen, Joseph (Presenter Only), AAS January 2025, "The TRGB-SBF Project_ Addressing the Hubble tension with a distance ladder independent of Cepheids", American Astronomical Society, National Harbor, Maryland. (January 15, 2025)
Jensen, Joseph (Presenter Only), APS Four Corners Section meeting, "Crisis in Cosmology_ Addressing the ‘Hubble tension’ with JWST", American Physical Society, Flagstaff, Arizona. (October 12, 2024)
Jensen, Joseph (Presenter Only), Steward Observatory + NOIRLab joint colloquium, "Crisis in Cosmology_ Addressing the ‘Hubble tension’ with JWST", University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona. (October 10, 2024)

Scholarly/Creative Works

Collaboration, H0DN , Casertano, Stefano , Anand, Gagandeep , Anderson, Richard I., Beaton, Rachael , Bhardwaj, Anupam , Blakeslee, John P., Boubel, Paula , Breuval, Louise , Brout, Dillon , Cantiello, Michele , Cruz Reyes, Mauricio , Cs\"ornyei, Geza, Array , de Jaeger, Thomas , Dhawan, Suhail , Di Valentino, Eleonora , Galbany, Llu\'\is, Array , Gil-Mar\'\in, H\'ector, Array , Graczyk, Dariusz , Huang, Caroline , Jensen, Joe , Kervella, Pierre , Leibundgut, Bruno , Lengen, Bastian , Li, Siyang , Macri, Lucas , \"Oz\"ulker, Emre, Array , Pesce, Dominic W., Riess, Adam , Romaniello, Martino , Said, Khaled , Sch\"oneberg, Nils, Array , Scolnic, Dan , Sicignano, Teresa , Skowron, Dorota M., Uddin, Syed A., Verde, Licia , Nota, Antonella , (2026) "The Local Distance Network_ A community consensus report on the measurement of the Hubble constant at \ensuremath\sim1\% precision" (vol. 708). \aap.
Chazov, Maksim I., Makarov, Dmitry I., Tully, R. Brent, Anand, Gagandeep S., Makarova, Lidia N., Cohen, Yotam , Blakeslee, John P., Cantiello, Michele , Jensen, Joe , Raimondo, Gabriella , (2026) "The TRGB-SBF Project. IV. A Color Calibration of the TRGB in the JWST F090W+F150W Filters" (Issue: 1, vol. 1001). \apj.
Anand, Gagandeep , Durbin, Meredith , Beaton, Rachael , Jensen, Joe , Riess, Adam , Lee, Janice C., Noviello, Jessica , LaMassa, Stephanie , Postman, Marc , (2026) "Envisioning the Distance Ladder in the Era of the Habitable Worlds Observatory" (vol. 542).
Wood, Charlotte M., Garnavich, Peter , Milne, Peter , Jensen, Joe , Blakeslee, John , Brown, Peter , Scolnic, Daniel , (2026) "Extending Precision Cosmology to Early Hosts of Type Ia Supernovae_ An Independent Distance Ladder via Surface Brightness Fluctuation Distances" (vol. 247).
Jensen, Joe , Holt, Sydney , Wolfgramm, Ty , Blakeslee, John , Tully, R. , Kourkchi, Ehsan , Peng, Eric , Chiboucas, Kristin , Cantiello, Michele , Raimondo, Gabriella , Anand, Gagandeep , Gutcke, Thales , Cho, Hyejeon , Kim, HyeongHan , Jee, Myungkook , Lim, Sungsoon , Mould, Jeremy , (2026) "Introducing the JWST Coma SBF Survey" (vol. 247).
Riccio, Gabriele , Cantiello, Michele , Habas, Rebecca , Hazra, Nandini , D'Ago, Giuseppe , Raimondo, Gabriella , Blakeslee, John P., Jensen, Joe , Mirabile, Marco , Brocato, Enzo , Brescia, Massimo , Raiteri, Claudia M., (2025) "FAST-SBF: An automatic procedure for the measurement of surface brightness fluctuations for large sky surveys_ Preliminary test on LSST precursors" (vol. 704). \aap.

Awards

Dean's Award for Teaching

Utah Valley University - April, 2018

Faculty Excellence Award

Utah Valley University - April, 2013

ARCS Foundation Scholar

Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS)

Award for excellence in graduate studies and research.

Graduated with Honors

California Institute of Technology - June, 1992

Graduated with a B.S. degree with honors.