Melinda Kellogg

Melinda Jane Kellogg, also known as Mindy Kellogg, is a distinguished physicist and academic.

Her career is marked by significant contributions to both condensed matter physics and observational astrophysics.

Ph.D.: She holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
Research Areas: Her research has explored areas such as:

Excitonic superfluidity.
Properties of high-redshift galaxies.
Bilayer two-dimensional electron systems at very low temperature, culminating in the possible discovery of a new type of superfluid.

Observational Work: She has worked as an observer on major telescopes, including the Keck 10-meter telescope and the Palomar Mountain’s Hale 200-inch telescope.

Teaching physics and astronomy courses as a Physics professor at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise. Serving on Faculty Senate.
Serving as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the MIT-Harvard Center for UltraCold Atoms.
Working as a Teaching Assistant at Caltech.
She is currently retired from physics.

She has received numerous prestigious awards, including:

University of California Regents Scholarship (which covered all living expenses and tuition at UCSB).
National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship.
Caltech’s Stemple Prize in Physics.
Everhart Distinguished Graduate Student Lecture Award.

Early Life and Work: She experienced a period of personal hardship, being very poor from 1981 (after high school) until 1989 (when she won her full scholarship to UCSB), often struggling to afford food. She worked a variety of jobs during this time, including:

Snack bar attendant at a bowling alley.
Working at pizza parlors (Godfather’s Pizza, Pizza Hut).
Waitressing at Pizza Hut, Bob’s Big Boy, and Drowsy Maggie’s (a folk-music restaurant).
Working the graveyard shift at Denny’s.

Veganism/Vegetarianism: She went vegetarian when she was nineteen and is still a vegetarian 43 years later.
Dance: Dance was her great passion in life, and she danced from age 12 until age 26, studying ballet, jazz, tap, and modern dance.
Marriage: She has been married to bestselling author Richard Bach since 2020. She manages his books, including Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah. She was previously married from 1993 to 1996 to a fellow physics major she met at UCSB.