astronomy

Jan Low

Jan Low is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Jan Low rather than just read about it. In short: Jan Low (born 1955) is an American food scientist. She is known for her work helping develop the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato at the CGIAR International Potato Center, for which she was a co-recipient of the 2016 World Food Prize alongside Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga, and Howarth Bouis.

Key takeaways

Jan Low belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Jan Low to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Jan Low from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Jan Low (born 1955) is an American food scientist. She is known for her work helping develop the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato at the CGIAR International Potato Center, for which she was a co-recipient of the 2016 World Food Prize alongside Maria Andrade, Robert Mwanga, and Howarth Bouis.

Early life and education Low was born in 1955 in Denver, Colorado. She attended Pomona College and spent four years in Zaire with the Peace Corps before earning a doctorate in agricultural economics at Cornell University in 1994.

Career

After Cornell, Low began working at the Nairobi office of the CGIAR International Potato Center, a research center based in Lima, Peru. She helped develop the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato, which contains more vitamin A than the dominant variant, and can therefore be used to help alleviate the vitamin A deficiency common among children in the region.

Recognition Low was awarded the 2016 World Food Prize, together with Maria Andrade, who did similar work in Mozambique, Robert Mwanga from Uganda, and Howarth Bouis of the International Food Policy Research Institute who carried out work on biofortification.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Jan Low

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Jan Low claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Jan Low before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Jan Low ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Jan Low

In research: Jan Low appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Jan Low in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Jan Low is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1955 births, American food scientists, Cornell University alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Jan Low outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Jan Low in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Jan Low means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Jan Low out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Jan Low in simple terms?

Why does Jan Low matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Jan Low?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Jan Low.