Gary Ferland Last updated September 11, 2025 Biography He joined the University of Texas Astronomy Department in 1973 where he received his Ph.D. in 1978, studying the 1975 explosion of V1500 Cygni at McDonald Observatory . [ 2] From 1978 to 1980 he was at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge where he worked with Martin Rees on International Ultraviolet Explorer observations of radio galaxies . [ 3] He joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1980. The American Astronomical Society 's Astronomy Genealogy Project [ 4] lists the 18 PhDs he has supervised. [ 5]
Ferland is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society , [ 6] and has served on their Governing Council in addition to their Publications Board. [ 7] He was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science [ 8] in 2023 and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society . He is a long-time member of the International Astronomical Union [ 9] where he was on the Organizing Committee of Division VI (2003–2009) and Commission 34 (2006–2012) Interstellar Matter .
His research involves the interactions between light and matter, especially how the photons we receive can tell us about events at the edges of the Universe. [ 10] He has also studied such diverse environments as the interstellar medium , planetary nebulae , H II region , photodissociation regions , and Active Galactic Nuclei . His discovery of a tidal disruption event in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 548 [ 11] was listed by Science News as one of the top ten discoveries in astronomy in 1986. [ 12]
He is best known as a developer of the open-source spectral simulation code Cloudy, [ 13] a project he started at Cambridge in 1978. The code uses large databases of atomic , molecular and interstellar grain cross sections and rate coefficients to determine the physical state of a non-equilibrium plasma , the emission or absorption properties of Interstellar clouds , and predict the observed spectrum . Cloudy helps to understand the emission and absorption spectra of plasmas and to interpret observational data from various astrophysical sources. Nature Astronomy named Cloudy their first Code of honour [ 14] in their Access Code [ 15] series.
He has edited two books in addition to more than 700 articles on astronomy and astrophysics. [ 16] He is a co-author on the influential [ 17] 2006 textbook Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei , written with Donald E. Osterbrock of Lick Observatory and the University of California at Santa Cruz .
A noted science communicator , Ferland has given popular-level talks at the Smithsonian Institution , the Cleveland Museum of Natural History , and numerous clubs, organizations, and classes across the Bluegrass region .[ citation needed ]
Honors and awards Ferland was identified as the most frequently acknowledged astronomer worldwide in the 1992 *Astronomy Acknowledgements Index*. [ 18] In 2016 he received the Catedrático de Excelencia Guillermo Haro from the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics in Mexico. [ 19] That same year, colleagues organized a Festschrift in his honor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. [ 20]
In recognition of his contributions to astrophysics, Ferland was elected a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2021 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022, with both organizations citing his development of the Cloudy spectral simulation code. [ 21]
Visiting positions Ferland has held a number of honorary visiting appointments at institutions worldwide:
At University of Cambridge Staff Member , Institute of Astronomy , 1978–1980Senior Visiting Fellow , 1987, 1990, 2007–2008, 2022Sackler Visiting Fellow , 2007–2008Visiting Associate , Darwin College, 2007–2008Kavli Visiting Fellowship , DAMTP (Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics ), 2019 [ 22] At Queen's University Belfast Distinguished Visiting Fellowship , Centre for Experimental Physics, 2002–2005 Leverhulme Professor , 2014–2015Visiting Research Professor , School of Mathematics and Physics, 2017–2018 Other institutions Visiting Fellow , Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics , University of Colorado Boulder , 1990–1991Visiting Astronomer , Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory , La Serena, Chile , 1992–1993Visiting Professor , Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics , University of Toronto , 1998–1999Visiting Astronomer , Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center , Warsaw , Poland , 2015 References ↑ "Gary Ferland" . Department of Physics and Astronomy . The University of Kentucky . Retrieved 15 July 2023 . ↑ Ferland, G. J. (1978). "Spectroscopic Observations of Nova V1500 Cygni" . Bibcode :1978PhDT.........3F . ↑ Ferland, G.J.; Rees, M.J.; Longair, M.S.; Perryman, M.C. (1979). "Observations of 3C 390.3 with the International Ultraviolet Explorer" . MNRAS . 187 : 65P-71. Bibcode :1979MNRAS.187P..65F . doi : 10.1093/mnras/187.1.65P . ↑ "Astronomy Genealogy Project" . Astronomy Genealogy Project . AAS. Retrieved 30 July 2023 . ↑ "Gary Ferland's PhD Students" . Astronomy Genealogy Project . AAS. Retrieved 30 July 2023 . ↑ Ferland, Gary. "Fellows of the AAS" . Fellows of the AAS . AAS. Retrieved 26 July 2023 . ↑ Ferland, Gary. "Gary Ferland at the AAS" . List of Past Officers and Trustees of the AAS . AAS. Retrieved 26 July 2023 . ↑ Ferland, Gary. "Elected Fellows of the AAAS" . Elected Fellows of the AAAS . AAAS. Retrieved 26 July 2023 . ↑ Ferland, Gary. "Gary Ferland's IAU page" . Gary Ferland's IAU page . IAU. Retrieved 26 July 2023 . ↑ " . www.research.uky.edu . Retrieved 16 September 2023 . ↑ Peterson, B.M.; Ferland, G.J. (1986). "An accretion event in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548" . Nature . 324 (6095): 345– 347. Bibcode :1986Natur.324..345P . doi :10.1038/324345a0 . S2CID 4268178 . Retrieved 19 July 2023 . ↑ "Science News of the Year" . No. v130, p400. Society for Science & the Public. 1986. Retrieved 19 July 2023 . ↑ https://gitlab.nublado.org/cloudy/cloudy/-/wikis/home ↑ Nature Astronomy, Access Code (20 August 2023). "Cloudy" . Nature Astronomy . 7 (8): 1002. Bibcode :2023NatAs...7.1002W . doi :10.1038/s41550-023-02046-1 . S2CID 260958052 . Retrieved 20 August 2023 . ↑ Access Code web site (August 2023). "Nature Astronomy Access Code" . Nature Astronomy . 7 (8): 877. doi :10.1038/s41550-023-02066-x . S2CID 260958570 . Retrieved 20 August 2023 . ↑ "Publications of Gary Ferland" . Publications of Gary Ferland . Astrophysics Data System. Retrieved 27 July 2023 . ↑ "Citations to Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae" . Google Scholar list of citations to Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae . Google Scholar. Retrieved 28 July 2023 . ↑ Verner, D. A. (March 1993). "Astronomy Acknowledgements Index 1992" (PDF) . The Messenger . 71 . European Southern Observatory: 59. ↑ ... ↑ ... ↑ ... ↑ "Gary Ferland at Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge" . Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge . University of Cambridge. Retrieved 15 October 2023 . ↑ " . www.research.uky.edu . Retrieved 16 September 2023 . External links
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