September

Harvard Bok Center awards 9 in the Astronomy department for Distinction and Excellence in Teaching

Harvard Bok Center awards 9 in the Astronomy department for Distinction and Excellence in Teaching

September 19, 2013

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning works to advance the quality of undergraduate education by providing Harvard’s teachers with resources, programs and support that promote excellence in teaching.  Each semester it recognizes with a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching those student instructors whose work is exemplary based on peer evaluations. 

... Read more about Harvard Bok Center awards 9 in the Astronomy department for Distinction and Excellence in Teaching

Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship awarded to Avi Loeb

September 24, 2012
Prof. Avi Loeb has been awarded the 2013 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at the University of Melbourne in Australia. This award is given to academics of international distinction in a field of interest to the University of Melbourne. Fellows are expected to present a public lecture and several specialist lectures. Previous recipients include Barbara Grosz, Tory Higgins, Thomas Mann, Michael Waltzer, and Joseph
Weiler.

Irwin Shapiro was awarded the 2013 Einstein Prize of The American Physical Society

September 20, 2012

Irwin Shapiro was awarded the 2013 Einstein Prize of The American Physical Society. The Prize was established to recognize outstanding accomplishments in the field of gravitational physics and consists of $10,000 and a certificate that includes the appropriate citation. The citation that will appear on

Irwin's certificate reads as follows:

"For his contributions to experimental solar system tests of relativistic theories of gravity, and in particular for proposing and measuring the Shapiro time delay effect."

The Einstein Prize will be presented at APS April 2013 Meeting in Denver, CO, April 13-16, 2013, at a special Ceremonial session.

Capturing the stars with video and sound, CFA fellow turns astronomical data into art

September 11, 2012


Image Credit: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer

Alex Parker, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’ Institute for Theory and Computation, has created several astronomical videos on his own time and posted them on the Internet. His latest video depicts the 2,299 planet candidates Kepler has found since it began searching for planets around stars in 2009.

Harvard Gazette Article

Supernova Sonata” video

Worlds: The Kepler Planet Candidates” video

Planets Can Form in the Galactic Center

September 11, 2012


In this artist's conception, a protoplanetary disk of gas and dust (red) is being shredded by the powerful gravitational tides of our galaxy's central black hole.
Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)

At first glance, the center of the Milky Way seems like a very inhospitable place to try to form a planet. Stars crowd each other as they whiz through space like cars on a rush-hour freeway. Supernova explosions blast out shock waves and bathe the region in intense radiation. Powerful gravitational forces from a super-massive black hole twist and warp the fabric of space itself. 

Avi Loeb appointed the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science

September 10, 2012
Harvard Astronomy Professor Avi Loeb has been appointed the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, effective July 1, 2012.  This professorship, established through the generous gift of the Frank B. Baird Jr. Foundation, recognizes an outstanding scientist in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Record-Breaking Stellar Explosion Helps Understand Far-Off Galaxy

September 4, 2012

An international research team, led by Edo Berger of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, made the most of a dying star’s fury to probe a distant galaxy some 9.5 billion light-years distant. The dying star, which lit the galactic scene, is the most distant stellar explosion of its kind ever studied. According to Berger, “It’s like someone turned on a flashlight in a dark room and suddenly allowed us to see, for a short time, what this far-off galaxy looks like, what it is composed of.”

CfA Press Release

Kaisey Mandel (Ph.D. 2011) wins Savage Prize

September 4, 2012

Kaisey Mandel (Ph.D. 2011), now a postdoc at Imperial College London, won the Savage Award of the International Society for Bayesian Analysis for the outstanding doctoral dissertation in applied methodology. His dissertation was "Improving cosmological distances to illuminate dark energy: hierarchical Bayesian models for type Ia supernovae in the optical and near-infrared." Kaisey received his award and gave a plenary talk at the ISBA World Meeting in Kyoto, Japan this summer.

http://bayesian.org/awards/Savage.html
http://bayesian.org/news/winners-isba-prizes-and-awards