Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1964

Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University

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Jeremiah Paul "Jerry" Ostriker (born April 13, 1937) 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 received his B.A. from Harvard, and his Ph.D at the University of Chicago.

After earning his Ph.D. at Chicago he conducted post-doctoral work at the University of Cambridge. From 1971 to 1995, Ostriker was a professor at Princeton, and served as Provost there from 1995 to 2001. From 2001 to 2003, he was appointed as Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge. He then returned to Princeton as the Charles Young Professor of Astronomy and is now the Charles A. Young Professor Emeritus. He continues as a Senior Research Scholar at Princeton and became a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia in 2012.

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.

Ostriker is also known for the Ostriker-Peebles criterion, relating to the stability of galactic form.