AAS Members Elected as APS Fellows
Richard Fienberg Running Hare Observatory
Paul Shapiro, the Frank N. Edmonds Jr. Regents Professor in Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin and Chair of the Division of Astrophysics (DAP) of the American Physical Society (APS), reports that seven AAS members are among the 2015 class of APS Fellows that were nominated by the DAP. APS Fellowship is restricted to just 0.5% of the APS membership in a given year. The new Fellows will receive their Fellowship certificates at the Annual DAP Business Meeting held in conjunction with the April 2016 APS meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Here are the new Fellows' names and citations:
Douglas Finkbeiner
For work as one of the world's leading practitioners of "big data" science, exploiting the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays, with rigorous attention to the underlying physics of what are often complex phenomena.
Eiichiro Komatsu
For pioneering use of the bispectrum to study the physics of the early universe and for playing a leading role in the analysis of WMAP data.
Abraham Loeb
For seminal contributions to several challenging problems in theoretical astrophysics ranging from the emergence of structure formation at the earliest epochs, to the physics of the epoch of reionization, to the use of gamma-ray bursts as cosmic probes, to the use of microlensing to detect planets.
Grzegorz Madejski
For insightful research over a thirty year career on relativistic jets and rich clusters of galaxies, his effective contributions to many successful high energy astrophysics space missions, and leadership in the community.
Scott Ransom
For contributions to the study of radio pulsars, including the measurement of pulsar masses that have constrained the equation of state of ultradense matter, the discovery of many millisecond and binary pulsars, and development of key pulsar algorithms.
Patrick Slane
For significant contributions to the physics of supernova remants,in particular for using deep images and spectra, over many wavebands,to understand the interaction of hot gas, interstellar material, pulsar wind nebulae, and cosmic ray acceleration within the remnants.
Rodger Thompson
For work in infrared instrumentation and studies of stellar nucleosynthesis, star formation, and active galactic nuclei; his pivotal role as principal investigator for NICMOS on the Hubble Space telescope; and his use of that instrument to pursue high redshift cosmology, AGNs, and star formation.
Note added on 30 October: Other divisions within the APS also get to nominate new Fellows, and since the original publication of this article we've begun hearing from other AAS members who were named APS Fellows in 2015. If you're not on this list and should be, please send us an email so we can add your name and citation here.
Douglas Arion
For groundbreaking work toward improving the educational impact of the physics degree by promoting the widespread adoption of entrepreneurship training and mindset within the discipline. [Nominated by the APS Forum on Physics and Society]
Shane Larson
For impacting science and society through the integration of public engagement and research, and for empowering generations of future scientists by his example. [Nominated by the APS Forum Outreach & Engaging Public]
Congratulations, all!