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Bryan Gaensler

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Australian astronomer

Bryan Malcolm Gaensler
Bryan Gaensler, August 2022
Born1973
Sydney, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Sydney
Children1
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics (astrophysics)
InstitutionsUniversity of California, Santa Cruz

Bryan Malcolm Gaensler (born 1973) is an Australian astronomer based at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He studies magnetars, supernova remnants, and magnetic fields. In 2014, he was appointed as Director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto, after James R. Graham's departure. He was the co-chair of the Canadian 2020 Long Range Plan Committee with Pauline Barmby. In 2023, he was appointed as Dean of Physical and Biological Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.

Education

Gaensler was born in Sydney, Australia. He attended Sydney Grammar School, and studied at the University of Sydney, graduating with a BSc with first class honours in physics (1995), followed by a PhD in astrophysics (1999). His PhD thesis was completed under the supervision of Anne Green and Richard Manchester.

Career

From 1998 to 2001, Gaensler held a Hubble Fellowship at the Center for Space Research of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2001 he moved to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory as a Clay Fellow. In 2002, he took up an appointment as an assistant professor in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University.

In 2006, he moved back to Sydney as an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney and in 2011 he was also appointed Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO). In June 2014, Gaensler announced that he would be leaving CAASTRO and taking up a position as director of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics at The University of Toronto commencing in January 2015.

Gaensler was Editor-in-Chief of Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia from 2009 to 2014. His contributions to PASA included redefining the scope of the journal to move away from accepting conference summaries and "intermediate results", moving to Cambridge University Press as publisher, and introducing the Dawes Reviews, named after early Australian astronomer of William Dawes.

Research

In 1997, Gaensler showed that many supernova remnants are aligned with the magnetic field of the Milky Way like "cosmic compasses". In 2000, he and Dale Frail calculated that some pulsars are much older than previously believed. In 2004, Gaensler used the Chandra X-ray Observatory to make the first detailed study of the behavior of high-energy particles around a fast moving pulsar.

In 2005, Gaensler was reported to have solved the mystery of why some supernova explosions form magnetars while others form ordinary pulsars. Later that year, he and his colleagues observed one of the brightest explosions ever observed in the history of astronomy, resulting from a sudden pulse of gamma rays from the magnetar SGR 1806-20. Also in 2005, he reported puzzling new observations of the Large Magellanic Cloud, showing that powerful but unknown forces were at work in maintaining this galaxy's magnetic field.

Gaensler was formerly the international project scientist for the Square Kilometre Array, a next-generation radio telescope. He is a member of the SKA Magnetism Science Working Group.

Public outreach

In 2011, Gaensler published his first book, Extreme Cosmos.

Personal

Gaensler married Laura Beth Bugg.

Honours and awards

References

  1. "LRP2020 - CASCA". Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  2. Kletzer, Lori (22 August 2023). "Welcome PBSci Dean Bryan Gaensler". UC Santa Cruz News.
  3. Gaensler, Bryan M. (1999), "Barrels, jets and smoke-rings understanding the bizarre shapes of radio supernova remnants", PhD Thesis, University of Sydney, retrieved 17 May 2020
  4. "Anne Josephine Green". AstroGen. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  5. "2017 and Prior Fellows (Section: 1998)". Space Telescope Science Institute. 5 June 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  6. "Clay Postdoctoral Fellowship: Clay Fellows". Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  7. "Chandra Chronicles Spotlight: Bryan Gaensler". Chandra X-ray Centre, Harvard University. 15 December 2005. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  8. Katynna Gill (13 November 2011). "CAASTRO: A new way of looking at the sky". University of Sydney. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  9. "Statement from CAASTRO Director Bryan Gaensler". Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2014.
  10. "PASA Editors" (PDF). Astronomical Society of Australia. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2020. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  11. Lomb, N. (24 April 2018), "Scientific society journals: the publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia", Historical Records of Australian Science, 29 (2): 112–121, Bibcode:2018HRAuS..29..112L, doi:10.1071/HR18002
  12. "STUDENT DISCOVERY: EXPLODED STARS 'COSMIC COMPASSES'". CSIRO Australia. 9 July 1997. Archived from the original on 3 June 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  13. "Pulsars 'lying about their age,' astronomers conclude". CNN. 31 July 2000. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  14. "The Mouse That Soared". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 23 September 2004. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  15. "Magnetic Mystery Solved". ScienceDaily. 2 February 2005. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  16. CHANG, KENNETH (18 February 2005). "Starburst Was One of Brightest Objects Observed on Earth". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  17. "Scientists say hassled galaxy 'thriving on chaos'". Spaceflight Now. 12 March 2005. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
  18. Square Kilometre Array. "Magnetism Science Working Group Membership". SKA Telescope. Archived from the original on 8 December 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  19. Gaensler, Bryan (3 July 2012). Extreme cosmos : a guided tour of the fastest, brightest, hottest, heaviest, oldest, and most amazing aspects of our universe (1st American ed.). Perigee Books. ISBN 978-0399537516. Retrieved 24 May 2020.
  20. "The universe on a dinner plate". SMH. 23 July 2023.
  21. "Bryan Gaensler". Australian of the Year Awards. National Australia Day Council. Archived from the original on 6 August 2020. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  22. "Past Fellows (2005)". Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Retrieved 17 May 2020.
  23. "Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy". American Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 11 February 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  24. "Professor Bryan Gaensler: A Survey of the Universe's Magnetism" (PDF). Australian Research Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  25. Gill, Katynna (7 December 2010). "Professor Bryan Gaensler wins Pawsey Medal". The University of Sydney News. University of Sydney. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
  26. "News | The University of Sydney". Sydney.edu.au. 27 March 2013. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  27. "Professor Bryan Gaensler wins Scopus Young Researcher Award". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 2 July 2014.

External links

External videos
video icon A new way of looking at the sky, Bryan Gaensler, TEDx talk, 9 June 2011, 14m, 20s
Preceded byTan Le Young Australian of the Year
1999 		Succeeded byIan Thorpe
Winners of the Young Australian of the Year Award
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