James Gunn (astronomer)
James Edward Gunn | |
---|---|
James E. Gunn (2000 photo) | |
Born | |
Alma mater | Rice University Caltech |
Known for | Gunn–Peterson trough |
Awards | Heineman Prize (1988) Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1994) Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation (2002) Crafoord Prize (2005) Gruber Prize (2005) National Medal of Science (2008) Bruce Medal (2013) Kyoto Prize (2019) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy and Astrophysics |
Institutions | Princeton University |
James Edward Gunn (born October 21, 1938) is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University. Gunn's early theoretical work in astronomy has helped establish the current understanding of how galaxies form, and the properties of the space between galaxies. He also suggested important observational tests to confirm the presence of dark matter in galaxies, and predicted the existence of a Gunn–Peterson trough in the spectra of distant quasars.
Cosmology may look like a science, but it isn't a science... A basic tenet of science is that you can do repeatable experiments, and you can't do that in cosmology.
James E. Gunn[1]
Much of Gunn's later work has involved leadership in major observational projects. He developed plans for one of the first uses of digital camera technology for space observation, a project that led to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most extensive three-dimensional mapping of the universe ever undertaken. He also played a major role with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Gunn graduated from A.C. Jones High School in Beeville, Texas in 1957. He earned his bachelor's degree at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 1961, and his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1965. He joined the faculty of Princeton University two years later. Subsequently, he worked at the University of California at Berkeley and Caltech before returning to Princeton. He is married to the astronomer Gillian Knapp and they have two children, Humberto and Marleny Gunn.
Honors
[edit]- 1977 – Elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences[2]
- 1977 – Elected member of the National Academy of Sciences[3]
- 1983 – MacArthur Fellow
- 1987 – Distinguished Alumnus Award, Rice University
- 1987 – Elected member of the American Philosophical Society[4]
- 1988 – Heineman Prize[5]
- 1994 – Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- 2001 – Petrie Prize, Canadian Astronomical Society
- 2002 – Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation[6]
- 2002 – Distinguished Alumnus Award, California Institute of Technology
- 2005 – Crafoord Prize with James Peebles and Martin Rees
- 2005 – Henry Norris Russell Lectureship of the American Astronomical Society
- 2005 – Gruber Cosmology Prize[7]
- 2006 – Honorary Degree from the University of Portsmouth
- 2008 – National Medal of Science[8]
- 2013 – Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- 2019 – Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (Earth and Planetary Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics)[9]
References
[edit]- ^ Cho, A. (September 28, 2007). "COSMOLOGY: A Singular Conundrum: How Odd Is Our Universe?". Science. 317 (5846). American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): 1848–1850. doi:10.1126/science.317.5846.1848. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17901307. S2CID 7148105.
- ^ "James Edward Gunn". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved March 23, 2021.
- ^ "James E. Gunn". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved May 5, 2022.
- ^ "Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
- ^ "Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
- ^ "2005 Gruber Cosmology Prize". The Gruber Foundation. Retrieved June 16, 2024.
- ^ Kitta MacPherson (September 17, 2009). "Gunn wins National Medal of Science". Princeton University. Retrieved September 17, 2009.
- ^ "James Gunn | Kyoto Prize". 京都賞. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
Further reading
[edit]- Ann K. Finkbeiner. A Grand and Bold Thing: An Extraordinary New Map of the Universe Ushering In A New Era of Discovery (2010), on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
- Preston, Richard. First Light. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press. ISBN 978-0-87113-200-0; OCLC 16004290
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- 1938 births
- Living people
- 21st-century American astronomers
- Princeton University faculty
- Rice University alumni
- California Institute of Technology alumni
- University of California, Berkeley faculty
- Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics
- People from Livingston, Texas
- MacArthur Fellows
- Members of the American Philosophical Society
- Kyoto laureates in Basic Sciences