Sheperd "Shep" S. Doeleman (born 1967) is an American astrophysicist. His research focuses on super massive black holes with sufficient resolution to directly observe the event horizon. He is a senior research fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the Founding Director[2] of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project.[3] He led the international team of researchers that produced the first directly observed image of a black hole.[4][5]
Sheperd S. Doeleman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Sheperd Nacheman 1967 |
| Awards | Bruno Rossi Prize (2020) Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2020) Henry Draper Medal (2021) Prix Georges Lemaître (2023)[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian |
| Thesis | Imaging Active Galactic Nuclei with 3mm-VLBI (1995) |
| Doctoral advisors | Alan E.E. Rogers and Bernard F. Burke |
Doeleman was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2019.[6]
Background
editHe was born in Wilsele in Belgium to American parents. The family returned to the United States a few months later, and he grew up in Portland, Oregon. He was later adopted by his stepfather Nelson Doeleman.[7]
Career and research
editHe earned a B.A. at Reed College in 1986 and then spent a year in Antarctica working on multiple space-science experiments at McMurdo Station. He then went on to earn a PhD in astrophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1995; his dissertation was titled Imaging Active Galactic Nuclei with 3mm-VLBI. He has worked at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn and returned to MIT in 1995, where he later became assistant director of the Haystack Observatory.[8][9]
His research has focused in particular on problems that require ultra-high resolving power. He is known for heading the group of over 200 researchers at research institutions in several countries that produced the first aperture synthesis image of a black hole.[5]
Significant papers
edit- Doeleman S.S., et al. (2008). Event-horizon-scale structure in the supermassive black hole candidate at the Galactic Centre. Nature 455: 78–80.
- Doeleman S.S., et al. (2012). Jet-Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87. Science 338: 355–358.
- Doeleman S.S., et al. (2009). Detecting Flaring Structures in Sagittarius A* with High-Frequency VLBI. Astrophys.J 695: 59-74.
Awards
edit- Guggenheim Fellow, 2012[8]
- 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (one share; prize shared equally among 347 scientist of the EHT)
- 2020 Lancelot M. Berkeley - New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy, [10]
- 2020 Bruno Rossi Prize, to Doeleman and the EHT
- 2021 Henry Draper Medal, shared with Heino Falcke
- 2023 Prix Georges Lemaître
References
edit- ^ "Sheperd Doeleman Awarded the 2023 Georges Lemaître International Prize". News, Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University. April 18, 2023.
- ^ "organization". eventhorizontelescope.org.
- ^ "Sheperd Doeleman". bhi.fas.harvard.edu.
- ^ "Harvard scientists shed light on importance of black hole image". 10 April 2019.
- ^ a b Ghosh, Pallab (10 April 2019). "First ever black hole image released". BBC.
- ^ "Shep Doeleman: The 100 Most Influential People of 2019". TIME. Retrieved 2020-09-22.
- ^ Seth Fletcher: Einstein's Shadow: A Black Hole, a Band of Astronomers, and the Quest to See the Unseeable (part 1, chapter 3). HarperCollins, 2018, ISBN 978-0-06-231202-0
- ^ a b "Sheperd S. Doeleman". John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.
- ^ "Sheperd S. Doeleman".
- ^ "Lancelot M. Berkley Prize". American Astronomical Society.