| 1 | Name: | Dr. Rashid Alievich Sunyaev | |
| Institution: | Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany; Russian Space Research Institute | ||
| Year Elected: | 2007 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | ||
| Residency: | International | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1943 | ||
Rashid Alievich Sunyaev is director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and chief scientist of the Russian Academy of Sciences's Space Research Institute. Hailing from the former Asian Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, he became one of the most important and prolific members of the Moscow group that pioneered relativistic astrophysics. Together with its leader Yakov Zel'dovich, he studied the relic radiation from the Big Bang, formulating the so-called Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, which has led to early tests of cosmological models that are still valid and which have provided impetus to one of the most active areas of observational cosmology. Through continuing collaborations around the globe, Sunyaev has served as a particularly effective scientific bridge between East and West. In 2010, he was appointed to a three year term as the Maureen and John Hendricks Visiting Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to the 2008 Crafoord prize, he has received a range of awards including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1995), the Gruber Cosmology Prize (2003), the Heineman Prize in Astrophysics (2003), the King Faisal International Prize for Science (2009), the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (2011), and the Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2012). He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2007. | |||