2008 American Astronomical Society Prize Winners

The 2008 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded to Rashid Sunyaev of the Russian Space Research and Max Planck Institutes for his seminal contributions to high energy astrophysics and cosmology. His theoretical insights defined the modern paradigm for gravitational accretion, provided interpretations for a host of high energy processes in the Galaxy and beyond, and laid the foundation for the current era of precision cosmology.

The 2008 AAS Education Prize is awarded to James B. Kaler (University of Illinois) for significant contributions to many aspects of astronomy education throughout his entire career; for his inspired teaching and mentorship of graduate and undergraduate students, many of whom have gone on to noteworthy careers in the field; for his wider contributions to introductory astronomy education through his textbooks and many engaging astronomy books; for maintaining a popular website with a wealth of useful material regularly consulted by astronomy teachers and students; and for his contributions to the public understanding of astronomy through his prodigious number of public lectures, his work with planetarium, television, and radio programs, and for his numerous books and articles for amateur astronomers as well as the general public.

The 2008 Helen B. Warner Prize is awarded to Eliot Quataert (University of California, Berkley) for his contributions to plasma astrophysics and accretion processes, the theory of low luminosity galactic nuclei, and an extraordinary range of other topics in theoretical astrophysics.

The 2008 George Van Biesbroeck Prize, honoring an individual for long-term extraordinary or unselfish service to astronomy, is awarded to Peter B. Stetson of the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics’ Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in recognition of his life-long efforts to enable, counsel, and help others do effective research with the tools that he has developed, specifically the DAOPHOT family of reduction programs for the analysis of astronomical images. These programs have been incorporated into—and have served as the working base for—the community reduction programs used at major institutions around the world. He has been described as the undisputed world-wide master of digital photometric techniques for measuring stellar fluxes in every conceivable astronomical situation. His fine physical insight allows him to make continuous advancement in crowded field photometry, with steadily improved and ever more automated algorithms. Astronomers across the globe will continue to benefit from his contributions for many years to come.

The 2008 Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize is awarded to Mark Reid, Harvard-Smithsonian, Center for Astrophysics, for his precision astrometry experiments with the VLBI and the VLBA and his pioneering use of cosmic masers as astronomical tools. His innovative research in radio astronomy has enhanced our understanding of the processes in star forming regions and has resulted in primary distance measurements throughout the Local Group of galaxies.

The 2008 Annie Jump Cannon Award is given to Jenny E. Greene, Harvard University, for her studies of massive black holes and their relation to galaxy formation. She has conducted important work on galaxies with low-mass (less than 1 million solar masses) central black holes, and the comparison of the black hole mass — bulge mass relation of normal galaxies with those with active galactic nuclei. With techniques and methods that she innovated, she has discovered numerous intermediate-mass black holes with masses of 10,000 — 100,000 solar masses. Her work put a firm lower limit on the space density of intermediate mass black holes.

The 2008 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize is awarded to Lisa Kewley, University of Hawaii, for her influential contributions to both the theoretical and observational fields of galaxy evolution. Dr. Kewley has pioneered new and improved techniques to determine key physical parameters as the star formation rate, chemical compositions, and energy source (massive stars versus AGN), which have brought new insights into the history of star-forming galaxies.

The 2008 Joseph Weber Award for Instrumentation is given to James Houck (Cornell University) for his extraordinary contributions over nearly four decades to major instrumentation for infrared astronomy. From early pioneering rocket experiments and major contributions to IRAS instrumentation to most recently the design and construction of IRS for the Spitzer telescope, Houck’s contributions have been seminal to make infrared astronomy among the most exciting in the entire field. Scientifically, Houck’s contributions have spanned the range from HII regions to the Galactic Center to extragalactic IR sources.

The Chambliss Writing Award for 2007 is given to Imke de Pater (Univ of California, Berkley) and Jack Lissauer (NASA/Ames Research Center) for their book, “Planetary Astrophysics.” “Planetary Astrophysics” is an ambitious text, which surveys the entire field of planetary astronomy, at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. In the words of one nominating letter, it “has rapidly become the standard text for teachers of planetary sciences.”

The AAS awards the 2007 Chambliss Amateur Achievement Medal to Ronald H. Bissinger of Racoon Run Observatory, Pleasanton, California, for his many contributions to the photometric study of transiting extrasolar planets. He has been involved with NASA and University of California scientists since 2001, via the transitsearch.org team, recording transits of exoplanets across the disks of their parent stars. These observations require exquisite precision for ground-based observations, often at a level rarely achieved even by professional astronomers. Among his many contributions, Bissinger was codiscoverer of the exoplanet XO-1b; he provided the first external confirmation for several exoplanet discoveries, including HD 149026b, which produces only a 3-millimagnitude dip in its star’s brightness; he discovered anomalies in the transit light-curve shape of TrES-1; and he developed techniques now used by other researchers in their photometric studies of low-amplitude variability.

While this award is made specifically in recognition of contributions to research, we also note Bissinger’s positive service to astronomy in other ways. For example, he has worked as a docent for the National Park Service, explaining astronomy and the night sky to the public; he has advised UCSC undergraduates on observing techniques; and he was an interviewee on the Timothy Ferris PBS special Seeing in the Dark and on an American Institute of Physics video on amateur photometry.