Brandt Receives Pierce Prize
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. [ S E ]
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.
