Janna Levin joined the Barnard faculty in January 2004. Professor Levin's research focuses on theories of the early universe, chaos, and black holes. She is also interested in the topology of the universe and the question of whether or not the universe is infinite. Other research topics include the cosmology of extra dimensions and string cosmology.
Professor Levin has conducted research at the Center for Particle Astrophysics (CfPA) at University of California, Berkeley, as well as the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics, Cambridge University, U.K.
While in England, she also had an appointment as the first scientist-in-residence at the Ruskin School of Fine Art and Drawing at Oxford, supported by an award from the National Endowment for Science, Technology, and Arts (NESTA).
Professor Levin writes and publishes for both scientific and general audiences. Her novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, won the PEN/Bingham Fellowship for Writers, an award which "honors an exceptionally talented fiction writer whose debut work ... represents distinguished literary achievement..." and the Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work. It was a runner-up for the PEN/Hemingway Award for "a distinguished book of first fiction."
She is also the author of a popular science book, How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space.