Giovanni G. Fazio | |
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Education |
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Alma mater | St. Mary's University, Texas |
Known for | infrared instruments, including the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Astronomy, astrophysics |
Institutions | Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian |
Website | www |
Giovanni Fazio is an American physicist at Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian. [3] He is an astrophysicist who has initiated and participated in multiple observation programs.
In 1962 he joined the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the Harvard College Observatory. There he started a program in gamma-ray astronomy using balloon-borne and ground-based detectors, [4] and the construction of the 10-meter optical reflector at the F. L. Whipple Observatory, Arizona, for the search of ultra-high-energy cosmic gamma-rays.
In 1984 Fazio was selected as Principal Investigator for the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) experiment on the Spitzer Space Telescope (NASA). The telescope was launched in August 2003, and has since produced multiple discoveries and images of the infrared universe.
Fazio is the editor-in-chief of Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation . He is also the main editor of The Encyclopedia of Cosmology. [5]
In recognition of his scientific contribution, Fazio has received many international awards. He was awarded the 2015 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship for "his pioneering work on gamma-ray and infrared instrumentation, which has advanced our understanding in many areas of astronomy, ranging from near-Earth objects to high-redshift galaxies." [6]
In 2019, Fazio received the SPIE George W. Goddard Award in Space and Airborne Optics "in recognition of exceptional achievements in the area of infrared instruments spanning 40 years including the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) aboard the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has made extraordinary discoveries from measuring the mass of the most distant galaxy (GN-z11) to finding and characterizing seven Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system." [2]
He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020. [7]
Sandra Moore Faber is an American astrophysicist known for her research on the evolution of galaxies. She is the University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory. She has made discoveries linking the brightness of galaxies to the speed of stars within them and was the co-discoverer of the Faber–Jackson relation. Faber was also instrumental in designing the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.
The Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003. Operations ended on 30 January 2020. Spitzer was the third space telescope dedicated to infrared astronomy, following IRAS (1983) and ISO (1995–1998). It was the first spacecraft to use an Earth-trailing orbit, later used by the Kepler planet-finder.
NASA's series of Great Observatories satellites are four large, powerful space-based astronomical telescopes launched between 1990 and 2003. They were built with different technology to examine specific wavelength/energy regions of the electromagnetic spectrum: gamma rays, X-rays, visible and ultraviolet light, and infrared light.
The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) is an astrophysics research institute jointly operated by the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Founded in 1973 and headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the CfA leads a broad program of research in astronomy, astrophysics, Earth and space sciences, as well as science education. The CfA either leads or participates in the development and operations of more than fifteen ground- and space-based astronomical research observatories across the electromagnetic spectrum, including the forthcoming Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, one of NASA's Great Observatories.
Eric E. Becklin is an American astrophysicist. The primary focus of Becklin's research is infrared imaging and spectroscopy, including the search for brown dwarfs, the detection of circumstellar dust rings, the dynamics and composition of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the nature of luminous infrared galaxies.
A telescope is an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe distant objects, or various devices used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practical telescopes were refracting telescopes with glass lenses and were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century. They were used for both terrestrial applications and astronomy.
The Gould Belt Survey is an astronomical research project led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, with the participation of several other institutions.
Cornelis A. "Neil" Gehrels was an American astrophysicist specializing in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. He was Chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 1995 until his death, and was best known for his work developing the field from early balloon instruments to today's space observatories such as the NASA Swift mission, for which he was the Principal investigator. He was leading the WFIRST wide-field infrared telescope forward toward a launch in the mid-2020s. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Wendy Laurel Freedman is a Canadian-American astronomer, best known for her measurement of the Hubble constant, and as director of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California, and Las Campanas, Chile. She is now the John & Marion Sullivan University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. Her principal research interests are in observational cosmology, focusing on measuring both the current and past expansion rates of the universe, and on characterizing the nature of dark energy.
Charles Mattias ("Matt") Mountain is currently the President of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy which designs, builds, and operates telescopes and observatories for the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). AURA's NASA center is the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), responsible for the science mission for the Hubble Space Telescope, the science and operations for the James Webb Space Telescope, and the MAST data archive. AURA's NSF centers are Gemini Observatory, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), and the National Solar Observatory (NSO). Dr. Mountain and AURA are also responsible for the NSF construction projects: the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) on Haleakalā, Hawaii and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) on Cerro Pachón in Chile.
Dr. Martin C. Weisskopf is project scientist for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Chief Scientist for X-ray Astronomy in the Space Sciences Department at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) was an infrared camera system on the Spitzer Space Telescope which operated in the mid-infrared spectrum. It was composed of four detectors that operated simultaneously at different wavelengths; all four were in use until 2009 May 15 when the Spitzer cryostat ran out of liquid helium. After then, the spacecraft operated in a warm extended mission, in which two of the four detectors remained functional, until the Spitzer mission was terminated on 2020 January 30.
The OTE Pathfinder, or James Webb Space Telescope Pathfinder, is a technology demonstrator/test article for the James Webb Space Telescope. It is a non-flight replica of the actual backplane, but only includes the center section not the two "Wings" on the side the extend and have additional segments on the actual JWST. It has been used for various tests and has some different configurations, but some of the major tests have been practicing installing mirror segments with non-flight hardware as well as thermal tests. The Pathfinder has also been tested in conjunction with flight hardware including the Aft Optics System. One of the goals and uses of the pathfinder is risk reduction for JWST program. The pathfinder allows practicing integration and testing procedures, and for risk mitigation With the Pathfinder it was possible to test phasing two mirrors together and also to do tests with the Aft Optical System. The OTE Pathfinder was part of the plan for integration and testing of JWST, and in particular supported the Optical Telescope Element.
Origins Space Telescope (Origins) is a concept study for a far-infrared survey space telescope mission. A preliminary concept in pre-formulation, it was presented to the United States Decadal Survey in 2019 for a possible selection to NASA's large strategic science missions. Origins would provide an array of new tools for studying star formation and the energetics and physical state of the interstellar medium within the Milky Way using infrared radiation and new spectroscopic capabilities.
Arcus is a proposed X-ray space observatory proposed to NASA's Explorer program, Medium Explorer (MIDEX) class.
Anne L. Kinney is an American space scientist and educator. Kinney is currently the Deputy Center Director at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Previously, she held positions as the head of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Chief Scientist of the W.M. Keck Observatory, Director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Director of the Origins Program at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Director of the Universe Division at NASA Headquarters. She earned a bachelor's degree in astronomy and physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a doctorate in astrophysics from New York University, and has published more than 80 papers on extragalactic astronomy. She was an instrument scientist for the Faint Object Spectrograph that flew on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr. Alexey Vikhlinin is a Russian-American astrophysicist notable for achievements in the astrophysics of high energy phenomenon, namely galaxy cluster cosmology and the design of space-based X-ray observatories. He is currently a Senior Astrophysicist and Deputy Associate Director of the High Energy Astrophysics Division at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, part of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is the Science and Technology Definition Team (STDT) Community Co-Chair for the Lynx X-ray Observatory, a NASA-funded Large Mission Concept Study under consideration by the 2020 Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics.