Rene Ong

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Rene Ong
Born
Rene Ashwin Ong
Alma mater
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
Doctoral advisor John A. Jaros

Rene Ashwin Ong is an American astrophysicist known for his work in experimental high-energy astrophysics, astroparticle physics, and particle physics. [1] He is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Contents

Education

Ong graduated from the University of Michigan in 1981 and obtained his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1987. [2] He was a Robert R. McCormick Fellow at the Enrico Fermi Institute from 1988 to 1991, before becoming an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. [2]

Career

Ong's early research focused on electron–positron annihilation at SLAC PEP, including development of the first vertex drift chamber for a collider experiment with Martin Perl, followed by his doctoral work on the B hadron lifetime. [3]

His research interests shifted to gamma-ray astronomy in 1990 after joining the Chicago Air Shower Array experiment, with the encouragement of James Cronin. [4] [5] He has since continued research in astrophysics with involvement in STACEE, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, VERITAS, GAPS, and the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO). As principal investigator of STACEE, he demonstrated the use of solar reflectors for high-energy astronomical observations. [6] He was the spokesperson of VERITAS [7] and later co-spokesperson of CTAO from 2014 until 2024, where he guided the consortium's science and construction plans. [8] As a principal investigator of GAPS, he led the time-of-flight and triggering system development. [9]

Awards and recognitions

In 2003, he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society "for his contribution to high energy particle astrophysics, in particular his contribution to very high energy gamma ray astronomy, where his research has spanned four decades of the electromagnetic spectrum." [1]

References

  1. 1 2 APS Fellow Archive
  2. 1 2 "Rene A. Ong". APS Physics. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Ong, Rene A (1987). "Measurement of the B Hadron Lifetime"
  4. ↑ Ong, Rene A (1998). "Very High Energy Gamma-Ray Astronomy". Physics Reports. 305, 93
  5. ↑ "Rene Ong: The world's most powerful observatory will reveal new unknown sources of high-energy photons". VědaVýzkum.cz. 2024-09-15. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  6. ↑ Nadis, Steve (1996-10-03). "From solar energy to gamma-ray 'telescope'". Nature. 383.
  7. ↑ Aguilar, David A.; Pulliam, Christine. "VERITAS Telescopes Help Solve 100-Year-Old Mystery: The Origin of Cosmic Rays". Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  8. ↑ "Dr. Thierry Stolarczyk Elected New Co-Spokesperson of the CTAO Consortium". CTAO. 2 December 2024. Retrieved 2025-12-30.
  9. ↑ Robertson, Mary Jo, ed. (2010). "UCLA Department of Physics and Astronomy 2009-2010 Annual Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2025-12-30.
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