| | 21 | Name: | Sir Fred Hoyle | | | Institution: | University of Cambridge | | | Year Elected: | 1980 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | August 20, 2001 | | | | |
| 22 | Name: | Dr. Hendrik C. van de Hulst | | | Institution: | Huygens Observatory, The Netherlands | | | Year Elected: | 1960 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1918 | | | Death Date: | July 31, 2000 | | | | |
| 23 | Name: | Dr. Kenneth I. Kellermann | | | Institution: | National Radio Astronomy Observatory | | | Year Elected: | 1997 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Dr. Kenneth I. Kellermann is a Senior Scientist at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory where he works on the study of radio galaxies, quasars and cosmology, on the development of new instrumentation for radio astronomy, and the history of radio astronomy. He also holds an appointment as a Research Professor at the University of Virginia and as an Outside Scientific member of the German Max Planck Society. Dr. Kellermann received his S.B. degree in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959 and his Ph. D. in physics and astronomy from Caltech in 1963. Following his Ph. D. he spent two years at the CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory in Australia. Since 1965 he has been at NRAO except for extended leaves at Caltech as a Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Visitor, and in the Netherlands, Australia, and Germany. He has served as the Assistant Director at NRAO and as Director at the Max Planck Institute fur Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. Dr. Kellermann is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is a recipient of the Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Gould Prize of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union, where he served as president of the Commission on Radio Astronomy, the American Astronomical Society, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the Astronomical Society of Australia. He has served on the Council of the National Academy of Sciences and on the Board of Trustees of the North East Radio Astronomy Corporation. | |
| 24 | Name: | Dr. Robert P. Kirshner | | | Institution: | Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory; Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2005 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1949 | | | | | | |
Robert Kirshner is best known for his observational studies of supernovae, which helped provide the scientific grounding for the teams investigating these extraordinarily distant lighthouses, and this in turn led to the surprising conclusion that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, probably the most significant cosmological discovery of the past decade. His previous work included important research on the large scale distribution of galaxies. A lively and entertaining lecturer, he teaches Harvard University's largest core course in the mathematical sciences. When applying for graduate school at Harvard, he was denied admission on the grounds that he was interested in too many things to be serious about astronomy; he later became Chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department, and he is president of the American Astronomical Society. Dr. Kirshner presently holds the titles of Clowes Professor of Science at Harvard University and Master of Quincy House at Harvard College. He received his Ph.D. in 1976 from the California Institute of Technology and was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1992 and the National Academy of Sciences in 1998. In 2012 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He received the James Craig Watson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 2014 and the Wolf Prize in 2015. | |
| 25 | Name: | Dr. Judith L. Lean | | | Institution: | Naval Research Laboratory | | | Year Elected: | 2013 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1953 | | | | | | |
Judith Lean is Senior Scientist for Sun-Earth System Research in the Space Science Division of the Naval Research Laboratory where she studies the integrated extended environment of the Earth, from its surface to the Sun. A U.S. citizen since 1992, she earned a Ph.D. in atmospheric physics from the University of Adelaide, Australia (1982) and a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from the Australian National University (1975). She has worked at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC since 1986, following an initial appointment as a research assistant at the University of Colorado at Boulder (from 1981 to 1986). Her research focuses on the mechanisms and measurements of variation in the Sun's radiative output at all wavelengths, and the effects of this variability on Earth, including space weather, climate change and the ozone layer. She has testified to the U.S. Congress on the role of solar output variations in climate change, and chaired the National Research Council’s (NRC) Working Group on Solar Influences on Global Change. She has served on a number of NSF, NOAA, NRC and NASA advisory committees, including the NRC Decadal Survey on Earth Science and Applications, the NRC Decadal Survey on Solar and Space Science and NASA’s Science Advisory Committee. A member of the AGU, IAGA, AAS/SPD, APS and AMS, she was elected a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2002 and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2003. She is the author (or co-author) of 150 published papers in the scientific literature, and has made more than 290 presentations at scientific meetings, seminars, colloquia and lectures. Judith Lean was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2013. | |
| 26 | Name: | Sir Bernard Lovell | | | Institution: | University of Manchester & Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, Jodrell Bank | | | Year Elected: | 1974 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1913 | | | Death Date: | August 6, 2012 | | | | | | |
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was a British radio astronomer and former director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. He studied physics at the University of Bristol, obtaining a Ph.D. in 1936. At the University of Manchester, he worked on the cosmic ray research team until the outbreak of World War II, during which time he worked for the Telecommunications Research Establishment developing radar systems to be installed in aircraft, for which he received an OBE in 1946. Lovell attempted to continue his cosmic ray work with an ex-military radar unit, and following interference from trams on Manchester's Oxford Road, he moved to Jodrell Bank. There he was able to show that radar echoes could be obtained from daytime meteor showers, and he subsequently constructed the then largest steerable radiotelescope in the world, which now bears his name; upon its completion in 1957 it was used to track the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I. Lovell was knighted in 1961 for his important contributions to the development of radio astronomy. A secondary school is also named for him in his home village of Oldland. Lovell's other honors include the Royal Medal of the Royal Society (1960) and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1981). He was Professor of Radio Astronomy Emeritus at the University of Manchester, with which he had been affiliated since 1951. Sir Bernard Lovell died August 6, 2012, at the age of 98 at his home in Swettenham Village, England. | |
| 27 | Name: | Dr. John C. Mather | | | Institution: | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; University of Maryland | | | Year Elected: | 2023 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1946 | | | | |
| 28 | Name: | Dr. Nicholas U. Mayall | | | Institution: | Kitts Peak Nationall Observatory | | | Year Elected: | 1962 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1906 | | | Death Date: | 1/5/93 | | | | |
| 29 | Name: | Dr. James M. Moran | | | Institution: | Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2020 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
James Moran is currently Senior Scientist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Donald H. Menzel Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1968. He has spent most of his career at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and Harvard University.
James Moran has led a decades long program which has directly established the geometric scale of the universe and provided the first direct evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes. These exquisite observations began with Moran’s 1967 pioneering work in the development of Very Long Baseline spectral line interferometry and culminated with his observations of cosmic H2O maser sources to obtain the direct geometric distance to a galaxy, independent of traditional multiple step extragalactic distance ladder and its uncertain metallicity corrections. The extragalactic distance scale is a key ingredient in establishing the equation state of dark matter as well as being an essential prerequisite for the determination of the age, energy density, synthesis of the light elements, geometry, and the evolution of the universe. The current “tension” between the maser/Cepheid/supernova and Planck values of the Hubble constant, 73.24p/m1.74 and 67.8p/m0.9 respectively, depends fundamentally on these direct geometric measurements.
James Moran was awarded the Rumford Prize of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1971, the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize of the American Astronomical Society in 1978, and the Grote Reber Gold Medal in 2013. He is a member of the International Astronomical Union (president, Division X and Commission 40, 1997-2000), the National Academy of Sciences (1998), and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (2010). James Moran was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2020. | |
| 30 | Name: | Dr. Philip Morrison | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1974 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | April 22, 2005 | | | | |
| 31 | Name: | Dr. Gerry Neugebauer | | | Institution: | California Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1986 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1932 | | | Death Date: | September 26, 2014 | | | | | | |
At the time of his death September 26. 2014, at the age of 82, Gerry Neugebauer was the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Physics Emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, where for many years he also directed the Palomar Observatory. Dr. Neugebauer received his Ph.D. from CalTech in 1960, began his professorial career there in 1962 and also served as chairman of the division of physics, mathematics and astronomy from 1988-93. His major contributions in the field include an infrared survey of three-fourths of the sky at two microns. His observations led to the realization of its complex structure, with a point source superimposed on a large, diffuse central source. In addition he made careful observations of numerous objects such as the Orion nebula, Seyfert galaxies, quasars, OH sources, and other cool objects whose enormous infrared intensities dominate their total flux and are of significance in elucidating their physical natures. The complex energy distributions in these objects have shown that an enormous excess of low-temperature radiation presumably arising from dust is a common property of the formation of stars, the opaque molecular clouds surrounding dying giant stars, and the explosion of galactic nuclei. Dr. Neugebauer opened up infrared areas in astronomy with satellites and regularly followed his space experiments with ground-based investigations. Winner of the Rumford Prize (1986) and a two-time recipient of the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1972, 1984), Dr. Neugebauer had been elected to the membership of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1986. | |
| 32 | Name: | Dr. Jan H. Oort | | | Year Elected: | 1957 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1900 | | | Death Date: | 11/5/92 | | | | |
| 33 | Name: | Dr. Donald E. Osterbrock | | | Institution: | University of California, Santa Cruz | | | Year Elected: | 1991 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1924 | | | Death Date: | January 11, 2007 | | | | |
| 34 | Name: | Dr. Jeremiah P. Ostriker | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1994 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Jeremiah Ostriker was born April 13, 1937 in New York. He received his A.B. in physics and chemistry from Harvard University in 1959 and his Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 1964 under the direction of S. Chandrasekhar. Upon completion of his Ph.D., he went to the University of Cambridge (England) as an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow. In 1965 he came to Princeton University as an Assistant Professor, rising through the ranks to Professor, where he continues to teach and conduct research. At Princeton University, in addition to his professorship, he was the Chair of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences and Director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1979 to 1995 when he became the Provost of the University, leaving that position in 2001. He spent the years 2001-2004 as the Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge (England). He was the Director of the Princeton Institute for Computational Science and Engineering (PICSciE) at Princeton University, from 2005-15. Within the National Academy of Sciences, Ostriker was elected Treasurer for the term 2008-2012 and, associated with that position, is a member of the NAS Council and the Governing Board of the National Research Committee (1994-95 and 2007-08), the Assembly of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (1977-80), the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Resources (1987-91), and the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (1992-95). He was a member of the Class I (Physical Sciences) Membership Committee in 1977, 1978, 1987, 1988, 1993, 2007 and 2008. He served on the Executive Committee of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Decennial Surveys (1969-73, 1978-83 and 1988-91), recently chaired the Committee to Examine the Methodology for the Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs (2002-03), and the Committee to Assess Research Doctorate Programs (2005-08). Ostriker is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the Royal Astronomical Society, the American Philosophical Society, and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he was recently elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. He is a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and was on the Editorial Board and Trustee of the Princeton University Press. Over the years, Ostriker has received numerous awards for his achievements, including a National Science Foundation Fellowship, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Sherman Fairchild Fellowship of the California Institute of Technology, the Henry Norris Russell Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the Smithsonian Institution's Regents Fellowship, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Vainu Bappu Memorial Award of the Indian National Science Academy, the Karl Schwarzschild Medal of the Astronomische Gesellschaft of Germany, the U.S. National Medal of Science, the British Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal, the James Craig Watson Medal of the National Academy of Science, and the Bruce Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The U.S. National Medal of Science recognized him "for his bold astrophysical insights, which have revolutionized concepts of the nature of pulsars, the 'ecosystem' of stars and gas in our Galaxy, the sizes and masses of galaxies, the nature and distribution of dark matter and ordinary matter in the Universe, and the formation of galaxies and other cosmological structures." Ostriker has been an influential researcher in one of the most exciting areas of modern science, theoretical astrophysics, with current primary work in the area of cosmology, particularly in the efforts to measure and determine the nature of the prevalent dark matter and dark energy components. He has investigated many areas of astrophysical research, including the structure and oscillations of rotating stars, the stability of galaxies, the evolution of globular clusters and other star systems, pulsars, X-ray binary stars, the dynamics of clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, astrophysical blast waves, quasars, active galactic nuclei and the formation of galaxies. Ostriker has pioneered in the development of very large-scale numerical simulations of astrophysical phenomena such as galaxy formation and quasar feedback. He continues to teach, supervise and collaborate with many graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and senior researchers. | |
| 35 | Name: | Dr. P. James E. Peebles | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 2004 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1935 | | | | | | |
An outstanding theoretical cosmologist, Jim Peebles has pioneered two important themes of modern cosmology: using physics and observations to reach a better understanding of cosmic evolution from the big bang, and seeking a quantitative understanding of the large-scale structure of the universe. After receiving his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1962, Dr. Peebles started to look into testable effects of a hot dense epoch after the big bang. In particular, he found that if thermal radiation exists, the universe must have gone through a stage about 100 seconds after the big bang when about 25 percent of the matter combined to form helium nuclei (the sun is about 25 percent helium). The agreement between observations and the theory of the abundance of light nuclei is a major factor in support of the modern cosmological model. Dr. Peebles has been associated with Princeton University, where he is presently Albert Einstein Professor of Science Emeritus, for over 40 years. A member of the American Physical Society, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Dr. Peebles has received many honors for his accomplishments, including the A.C. Morrison Award in National Science (1977), the Royal Astronomical Society's Eddington Medal (1981) and Gold Medal (1998) and the Gruber Cosmology Prize (2000). In 2019 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics. | |
| 36 | Name: | Dr. Manuel Peimbert | | | Institution: | Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) | | | Year Elected: | 2002 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1941 | | | | | | |
Manuel Peimbert is an outstanding research worker on gaseous nebulae and the abundances of the elements in the universe. An expert theorist and a practiced observer, he has combined his skills to analyze the structure, densities, temperatures, abundances, and other physical properties of nebulae. Dr. Peimbert has traced the effects of stellar evolution on the abundances of the elements in interstellar matter from which new stars are formed today. His careful studies of the He/H abundance ratio have helped to set narrower constraints on physical conditions for the "big bang." Dr. Peimbert is considered a world expert in his field and one of the most productive scientists in Mexico. His papers are widely quoted. He has been a professor at the Instituto de Astronomia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, since 1970. | |
| 37 | Name: | Dr. Saul Perlmutter | | | Institution: | University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory | | | Year Elected: | 2014 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1959 | | | | |
| 38 | Name: | Lord Martin Rees | | | Institution: | University of Cambridge | | | Year Elected: | 1993 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1942 | | | | | | |
Martin Rees is Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal and also Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and at Leicester University. After studying at the University of Cambridge, he held post-doctoral positions in the UK and the USA, before becoming a professor at Sussex University. In 1973, he became a fellow of King's College and Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at Cambridge (continuing in the latter post until 1991) and served for ten years as director of Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy. From 1992 to 2003 he was a Royal Society Research Professor. He is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy, and several other foreign academies. His awards include the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, the Balzan International Prize, the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (AAS/AIP), the Bower Award for Science of the Franklin Institute, the Cosmology Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation, the Einstein Award of the World Cultural Council, the Crafoord Prize (Royal Swedish Academy), the Lewis Thomas Prize (2009) from Rockefeller University in recognition of his book Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe (2000), the 2011 Templeton Prize, and the 2012 Isaac Newton medal of the Institute of Physics. He has been president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1994-95) and the Royal Astronomical Society (1992-94) and a trustee of the British Museum, NESTA and the Kennedy Memorial Trust. He is currently on the Board of Trustees of the National Museum of Science and Industry the Institute for Public Policy Research, and the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study, and has served on many bodies connected with education, space research, arms control and international collaboration in science. In 2005 he was appointed to the House of Lords and elected President of the Royal Society. He is the author or co-author of more than 500 research papers, mainly on astrophysics and cosmology, and of numerous magazine and newspaper articles on scientific and general subjects. He is the author of several books, including From Here to Infinity: Scientific Horizons (2011) and On the Future (2018). He has broadcast and lectured widely and held various visiting professorships, etc. His main current research interests are high energy astrophysics, cosmic structure formation and general cosmological issues. | |
| 39 | Name: | Dr. Walter Orr Roberts | | | Institution: | Universal Corporation for Atmospheric Research | | | Year Elected: | 1973 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1915 | | | Death Date: | 3/12/90 | | | | |
| 40 | Name: | Dr. Vera C. Rubin | | | Institution: | Carnegie Institution of Washington | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1928 | | | Death Date: | December 25, 2016 | | | | | | |
Vera C. Rubin was an observational astronomer who studied the motions of gas and stars in galaxies and motions of galaxies in the universe. Her work was influential in discovering that most of the matter in the universe is dark. She was a graduate of Vassar College, Cornell University, and Georgetown University; George Gamow was her thesis professor. She was a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of Science (1993). She received the Weizmann Women and Science Award, the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the Gruber International Cosmology Prize, the Watson Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (London); the previous award to a woman was to Caroline Herschel in 1828. She was active in encouraging and supporting women in science. Her husband and their four children were all Ph.D. scientists. She was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1995. Vera Rubin died December 25, 2016, at age 88. | |
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