Prizes

Alex Dalgarno selected for the 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Physics

October 22, 2012

2013 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN MEDAL IN PHYSICS

Alexander Dalgarno, Ph.D.
Harvard University
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Citation: For his many fundamental contributions to the development of the field of molecular astrophysics, which led to a better understanding of interstellar space, including the giant molecular clouds that are the birthplaces of stars and planets.

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.

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

Avi Loeb will deliver a series of four lectures as the recipient of the 2012 Galileo Chair

June 25, 2012

Avi Loeb will deliver a series of four lectures as the recipient of the 2012 Galileo Chair ("Cattedra Galileiana") at Scoula Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. The lecture titles and times (in Italy) are as follows:

Lecture I | Tue Jun 26th - 11.00 a.m.
Structure Formation in the Universe (video)

Lecture II | Wed Jun 27th - 11.00 a.m.
The First Galaxies and Reionization (video)

Lecture III | Tue Jul 03rd - 11.00 a.m.
A Closer Look at Black Holes (video)

Lecture IV | Wed Jul 04th - 11.00 a.m.
Future Frontiers in Cosmology from a Galilean Perspective (video)

video recordings are available subsequently at
http://tv.sns.it/eventispeciali

Four Astronomy Undergraduates are Selected for Hoopes Prize

May 7, 2012

Eighty-nine seniors received this year’s prestigious Hoopes Prize for outstanding research or scholarly work, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Prize Office announced Friday.

The distinction—funded by the estate of Thomas T. Hoopes ’19—comes with a $4,000 award for students and a $1,000 honorarium for faculty advisors who nominated student theses or projects this spring, according to Tarik Umar ’10, an economics concentrator and a Hoopes winner.

Four prizes were awarded to Harvard Astronomy Undergraduates:

Dierickx, Marion Inge for her submission entitled "Constraining Local
Group Dark Matter Using M33's Past Orbit" - nominated by Professor Abraham
Loeb

Fogarty, Kevin Welsh for his submission entitled "Galaxy Cluster Mass
Proxies: Examining X-Ray and Sunyaev- Zel'dovich Effect Observations of
114 Galaxy Clusters in the Planck Early SZ Catalog" - nominated by Dr.
Christine Jones

Kruse, Ethan Alexander for his submission entitled "A Systematic Search
for New Kepler Circumbinary Planets" - nominated by Dr. Darin Ragozzine

Rice, Thomas Sean for his submission entitled "A Hierarchical Catalog of
Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way" - nominated by Professor Alyssa Goodman

Hoopes Prizes Awarded to Top Theses, Harvard Crimson

Professor David Charbonneau wins the Sackler Prize

April 23, 2012

...

Avi Loeb 2012 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow

April 17, 2012

Harvard Astronomy Professor and Department Chair was selected to be a 2012 American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellow. Founded in 1780, the Academy is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Election to membership is an uncommon honor. Other 2012 AAAS Fellows include Mel Books, Clint Eastwood, and
Hillary Clinton.

Complete List of 2012 AAAS Fellows ( aaas.pdf )

Kaisey Mandel is a finalist for this year's Savage Award for the best doctoral dissertation by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis

February 15, 2012

Kaisey Mandel (Harvard Ph.D. Astronomy 2011), who is currently a postdoc in the Astrostatistics group at Imperial College London has been notified that he is a finalist for this year's Savage Award for the best doctoral dissertation by the International Society for Bayesian Analysis. They are inviting him to their meeting in Tokyo to give a talk and attend the award ceremonies.

http://bayesian.org/awards/Savage.html

Kaisey notes two of the Honorable Mentions for this award in previous ...

Astronomy department senior lecturer, Phil Sadler, won the Robert A. Millikan Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)

February 14, 2012

The Astronomy department senior lecturer, Phil Sadler, won the Robert A. Millikan Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT). The Robert A Millikan Medal recognizes those who have made notable and intellectually creative contributions to the teaching of physics.... Read more about Astronomy department senior lecturer, Phil Sadler, won the Robert A. Millikan Medal of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT)

"Cattedra Galileiana" for the 2011-12 Academic Year at the Scoule Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy awarded to Avi Loeb

February 13, 2012

Avi Loeb was awarded the "Cattedra Galileiana" for the 2011-12 Academic Year at the Scoule Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy. He will give 4 lectures on Cosmology related to this award.... Read more about "Cattedra Galileiana" for the 2011-12 Academic Year at the Scoule Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy awarded to Avi Loeb

Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy to Heather A. Knutson, Astronomy PhD '09

February 8, 2012

The Annie Jump Cannon Award for outstanding research and promise for future research by a woman goes to Heather Knutson (Caltech) "for her pioneering work on the characterization of exoplanetary atmospheres." Knutson's groundbreaking observations of wavelength-dependent thermal emission of exoplanets over large fractions of their orbit have revealed details of atmospheric dynamics, energy transport, inversion layers, and chemical composition. Her work has expanded the rich field of planetary characterization by providing new windows into the atmospheres of planets beyond the confines of our solar system.

Harvard Astronomy and Physics Alumni Win Nobel Prize

December 1, 2011

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

Saul Perlmutter, Harvard Physics undergraduate, and Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess both Harvard Astronomy PhDs were recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize for "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae."

Department of Astronomy