Marta Burgay

Marta Burgay (30 November 1976, Torino) is an Italian radio astronomer whose initial claim to fame was being the discoverer ^{[1] [2] [3]} of PSR J0737-3039, the first double pulsar (two pulsars orbiting each other), through using the 64-metre Parkes radio telescope in Australia. ^[4]

Education

• In 1995, she graduated from Liceo Classico XVI Febbraio: Aosta, specialising in classical studies. ^[5]
• In 2000, she graduated from University of Bologna with a Laurea degree in Astronomy.
• In 2004 she obtained her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Bologna.

Awards and honours

• Her Thesis on radio pulsars won the 2005 Pietro Tacchini Prize, awarded by the Italian Astronomical Society (Italian: Società Astronomica Italiana) for the best Ph.D. thesis. ^[6]
• In 2005, she was part of the international group PulSE (Pulsar Science in Europe) awarded the Descartes Prize for "Excellence in collaborative scientific research"
• In 2006, she became the first winner of the IUPAP's Young Scientists Prize in Astrophysics award. ^[7]
• In 2006, she was awarded the SIGRAV prize for contribution to General Relativity and Gravitational Astrophysics. ^[8]
• In 2010, she was honoured with the Vainu Bappu Gold Medal by the Astronomical Society of India. ^[9]
• Asteroid 198634 Burgaymarta, discovered at Vallemare di Borbona in 2005, was named in her honour ^[4] .The official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 5 October 2017 ( M.P.C. 106503). ^[10]
• In 2011, she was awarded the Marisa Bellisario prize, entitled "Women, Innovation, and Human Capital". ^[11]

References

1. Pulsar find boosts hope for gravity-wave hunters, CSIRO, 3 December 2003, accessed 2009-05-11
2. New Binary Neutron Star Will Test Einstein Archived 2008-12-03 at the Wayback Machine , Robert Naeye, Sky and Telescope, 2003.12.12, accessed 2009-05-11
3. Einstein Passes New Tests, Robert Naeye, Sky and Telescope, 3 March 2005, accessed 2009-05-11
4. "198634 Burgaymarta (2005 AN54)". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
5. "ORCID". orcid.org. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
6. Burgay, Marta, "Marta Burgay PhD Thesis", The Cagliari Pulsar Group, Cagliari Astronomical Observatory, archived from the original on 2013-09-27, retrieved 2012-01-03
7. Fridman, Alexia M. (2005), "The IUPAP young scientists prize in astrophysics" , Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions, 24 (3), Commission 19 (Astrophysics) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics: 149, Bibcode:2005A&AT...24..149F, doi:10.1080/10556790500481042 , retrieved 2012-01-03
8. "The SIGRAV Prizes . SIGRAV". SIGRAV. Archived from the original on 2023-02-07. Retrieved 2025-07-13.
9. "Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal". Astronomical Society of India. Archived from the original on June 10, 2015. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
10. "MPC/MPO/MPS Archive". Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 24 August 2019.
11. Malaspina, Marco. "Premio "Marisa Bellisario" a Marta Burgay". MEDIA INAF (in Italian). Retrieved 2025-07-13.

External links

• Gold, Lauren (August 18, 2005), "Weeklong summer school brings students and researchers to Arecibo Observatory to learn and to wonder", News Service, Cornell University, retrieved 2012-01-03