Don Winget

Last updated
Donald Earl Winget [1]
EducationPh.D.
Alma materUniversity of Rochester
AwardsRobert J. Trumpler Award
Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Texas at Austin

Don E. Winget is an American astronomer and astrophysicist who studies white dwarf stars. He is the Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professor in Astronomy and a university distinguished teaching professor at the University of Texas at Austin. [2]

Contents

Research

Much of Winget's research concerns the study of white dwarf stars.

Winget's doctoral research at the University of Rochester predicted the existence of DBV stars, a certain class of pulsating white dwarf. After becoming a faculty member at the University of Texas, he and his colleagues discovered GD 358, a star of this class, fulfilling the prediction of his dissertation and marking the first time in which a class of variable stars was predicted to exist before any instances of it were observed. [3]

With Ed Nather, his colleague at University of Texas, Winget introduced the technique for studying the seismology and the inner structure of white dwarfs called "Whole Earth Telescope". The technique involves coordinating a network of small telescopes around the world to capture small variations in the light output of a white dwarf caused by its seismic oscillations. [4]

One of Winget's projects involves studying white dwarfs using the Z machine pulsed-power electromagnetic wave generator at the Sandia National Lab in New Mexico. [5] [6]

Recognition

In 1983, Winget was awarded the Robert J. Trumpler Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. [3] He received the 1987 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astronomical object</span> Large natural physical entity in space

An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms object and body are often used interchangeably. However, an astronomical body or celestial body is a single, tightly bound, contiguous entity, while an astronomical or celestial object is a complex, less cohesively bound structure, which may consist of multiple bodies or even other objects with substructures.

Marc Aaronson was an American astronomer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Astronomical Society</span> Society of professional astronomers based in Washington, DC

The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the advancement of astronomy and closely related branches of science, while the secondary purpose includes enhancing astronomy education and providing a political voice for its members through lobbying and grassroots activities. Its current mission is to enhance and share humanity's scientific understanding of the universe as a diverse and inclusive astronomical community.

The Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research. The prize is named after Newton Lacy Pierce, an American astronomer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea M. Ghez</span> American astronomer (born 1965)

Andrea Mia Ghez is an American astrophysicist, Nobel laureate, and professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Gaensler</span> Australian astronomer

Bryan Malcolm Gaensler 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.

Amy J. Barger is an American astronomer and Henrietta Leavitt Professor of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is considered a pioneer in combining data from multiple telescopes to monitor multiple wavelengths and in discovering distant galaxies and supermassive black holes, which are outside of the visible spectrum. Barger is an active member of the International Astronomical Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Filippenko</span> American astrophysicist

Alexei Vladimir "Alex" Filippenko is an American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. Filippenko graduated from Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, California. He received a Bachelor of Arts in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979 and a Ph.D. in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1984, where he was a Hertz Foundation Fellow. He was a postdoctoral Miller Fellow at Berkeley from 1984 to 1986 and was appointed to Berkeley's faculty in 1986. In 1996 and 2005, he a Miller Research Professor, and he is currently a Senior Miller Fellow. His research focuses on supernovae and active galaxies at optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared wavelengths, as well as on black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and the expansion of the Universe.

Lisa Jennifer Kewley is an Australian Astrophysicist and current Director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. Previously, Kewley was Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3-D and ARC Laureate Fellow at the Australian National University College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, where she was also a Professor. Specialising in galaxy evolution, she won the Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy in 2005 for her studies of oxygen in galaxies, and the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 2008. In 2014 she was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. In 2020 she received the James Craig Watson Medal. In 2021 she was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 2022 she became the first female director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PG 1159-035</span> Star in the constellation Virgo

PG 1159-035 is the prototypical PG 1159 star after which the class of PG 1159 stars was named. It was discovered in the Palomar-Green survey of ultraviolet-excess stellar objects and, like the other PG 1159 stars, is in transition between being the central star of a planetary nebula and being a white dwarf.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Nather</span> American astronomer

Roy Edward Nather was an American astronomer, who at the time of his death, was professor emeritus in Astronomy at University of Texas at Austin. He pioneered the fields of asteroseismology of white dwarfs, and observational studies of interacting binary collapsed stars.

George David Gatewood also known as George G. Gatewood, is an American astronomer and presently is professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh and at the Allegheny Observatory. He specializes in astronomy, astronomical instrumentation, statistical methods, stellar astrophysics, astrometric properties of nearby stars and the observational discovery and the study of planetary systems. He came to popular attention with his 1996 announcement of the discovery of a nearby multi-planet star system. This discovery has yet to be confirmed and is regarded with skepticism today.

Alan Michael Dressler is an American astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science of Washington, D.C. Among his works is the popularization Voyage To The Great Attractor: Exploring Intergalactic Space.

Gillian Knapp is a professor of astronomical sciences at Princeton University. She is a faculty fellow at Whitman College. She has been involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and she is an active member of the International Astronomical Union.

Kristen Sellgren is an American retired astronomer and Professor Emerita at the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Ohio State University. She won the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 1990. She is the founder of American Astronomical Society's Committee for Sexual-Orientation & Gender Minorities in Astronomy (SGMA).

Harriet Dinerstein is an American astronomer. The American Astronomical Society honored her work by awarding her the Annie J. Cannon Prize in 1985. She also received the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in 1989. Dinerstein received her Bachelor of Science degree from Yale University in 1975 and her Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1980. She currently is a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Murdin</span> British astronomer

Paul Geoffrey Murdin is a British astronomer. He identified the first clear candidate for a black hole, Cygnus X-1, with his colleague Louise Webster.

Gilles Fontaine was a professor of astrophysics at the Université de Montréal in Quebec, Canada.

Jennifer Lynn Bartlett is an American astronomer, the Kinnear Chair of Physics at the United States Naval Academy, and former Chief of the Software Products Division in the Astronomical Applications Department of the United States Naval Observatory. Her interests include the development of software for astrometry, the accurate measurements of distances to nearby stars, celestial navigation, the effects of the atmosphere on the brightness of the sky and celestial objects, the history of astronomy, and the preservation of historical astronomical data.

The Whole Earth Telescope is an international network of astronomers that collaborate to study variable stars. The distribution of the observatories in longitude allow the selected targets to be continuously monitored despite the rotation of the Earth.

References

  1. Winget, Donald Earl (1982). "Gravity Mode Instabilities in DA White Dwarfs". Dissertation Abstracts International. 43–01: 161. Bibcode:1982PhDT........27W.
  2. "Don Winget". UT Astronomy - Faculty. University of Texas. Archived from the original on 2022-01-24. Retrieved 2021-05-02.
  3. 1 2 "ASP presents awards to six astronomers". Physics Today. 37 (3): 110–113. March 1984. doi:10.1063/1.2916125.
  4. J. Craig Wheeler (2007). Cosmic Catastrophes. Exploding Stars, Black Holes, and Mapping the Universe. Cambridge University Press. p. 68. ISBN   9781139462419.
  5. Joe Palca (2014-03-06). "The Scientist Who Makes Stars On Earth". NPR . Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  6. Joseph A. Bernstein (2012-09-16). "A Dying Star Is Reborn in a Lab". Discover . Retrieved 2021-02-03.
  7. "Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy". American Astronomical Society . Retrieved 2021-02-03.