Ellen Gould Zweibel (born 20 December 1952, New York City) is an American astrophysicist and plasma physicist. In 1973, Zweibel received her bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago and in 1977 her Ph.D. in physics from Princeton with thesis The Equilibrium and Radial Oscillations of Cool Stellar Disks under the supervision of Jeremiah P. Ostriker. She was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study for the academic year 1977–1978 and then joined the solar physics group of the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. In addition, she was from 1980 to 2003 a professor at the University of Colorado. She is now the Professor of Astronomy and Physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Zweibel is a founding member and for