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Brandt Receives Pierce
Prize
24 June 2004 -- The American Astronomical
Society has awarded its Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy to
Niel Brandt, professor of astronomy and astrophysics
at Penn State. The prize honors young astronomers for their research
based on measurements of radiation from an astronomical object.
Brandt was recognized with the award for his outstanding contributions
to X-ray astronomy. His publication list includes more than 130
articles in refereed journals, and his teaching subjects include
black holes, high-energy astrophysics, and active galaxies. Brandt
has collaborated on research with many undergraduates, graduate
students, and postdoctoral associates at Penn State, thereby helping
them to develop their research abilities. His work has “played
a key role in increasing our understanding of the accretion process
around massive black holes,” the Pierce citation states.
As part of his research work, he uses the X-rays emitted by the
gas swirling around a black hole as a 'flashlight' to 'X-ray' material
in the galaxy's nucleus. By analyzing the spectra and variability
of the X-rays, he hopes to determine the precise mechanisms by which
X-rays are emitted and to measure the rates at which supermassive
black holes are swallowing the matter that surrounds them. He also
is using X-ray data to discover new active galactic nuclei. His
most recent research is with the Chandra Deep Field North pencil-beam
X-ray survey, in which he has created the most sensitive image to
date of the distant X-ray universe.
Brandt’s previous honors include a Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1996, an Alfred P. Sloan
Research Fellowship in 1999, and a National Science Foundation CAREER
award in 2000.
Brandt earned his bachelor's degree in physics at the California
Institute of Technology in 1992 and his doctoral degree in X-ray
astrophysics at Cambridge University in 1996. He was a Smithsonian
Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
from 1996 to 1997, when he joined the Penn State faculty.
The Newton Lacy Pierce Prize is awarded annually for outstanding
achievement to an astronomer who has not yet attained 36 years of
age in the year designated for the award. Recipients must be residents
of North America or a member of a North American institution.
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