Scott Tremaine

Last updated

Scott Tremaine
Born
Scott Duncan Tremaine

1950
Toronto, Ontario
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanada
Alma mater Princeton University
Known forTheory of galactic dynamics
Spouse Marilyn Tremaine
Scientific career
Fields Astrophysics
Institutions University of Toronto, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, Princeton University

Scott Duncan Tremaine (born 1950) [1] [2] is a Canadian-born astrophysicist. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of London, [3] the Royal Society of Canada and the National Academy of Sciences. [4] Tremaine is widely regarded as one of the world's leading astrophysicists [5] [6] for his contributions to the theory of Solar System and galactic dynamics. [7] Tremaine is the namesake of asteroid 3806 Tremaine. [8] [9] [10] [11] He is credited with coining the name "Kuiper belt". [12]

Contents

Career

He obtained a bachelor's degree at McMaster University in 1971, and a PhD from Princeton University in 1975. [13] He further received an honorary PhD from McMaster University in 1996. [14] He was an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1981 to 1985. [15] He became the first director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Toronto in 1986, a position he held until 1996. [15] He gained the rare distinction of "University Professor" at the University of Toronto in 1995. [16] In 1997, he left CITA and took up a position as a professor at Princeton University, becoming chair of the Astrophysical Sciences department from 1998 to 2006. [1]

Scott Tremaine is currently a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, for which he left Princeton University in 2007, being replaced as department chair by David Spergel. [17] [18] He has been married to Prof. Marilyn Mantei Tremaine for more than two decades, an expert in human-computer interaction who is the past chair of the SIGCHI section of the Association for Computing Machinery. [19]

Scientific accomplishments

Pandora and Prometheus shepherding Saturn's F ring, as predicted by Goldreich and Tremaine Prometheus und Pandora.jpg
Pandora and Prometheus shepherding Saturn's F ring, as predicted by Goldreich and Tremaine

Tremaine, along with Peter Goldreich, correctly predicted that shepherd moons created Saturn's thin F ring, as well as the thin rings of Uranus in 1979. [20] [21] [22] The Saturnian moons Prometheus and Pandora were first observed in 1981 [23] and shepherding moons were found around Uranus' rings in 1986. [24] Tremaine cowrote the book Galactic Dynamics with James Binney, which is often regarded as the standard reference in the field [1] [25] [26] [27] [28] and has been cited more than three thousand times in scholarly publications. [29] [30] Tremaine, along with collaborators at the University of Toronto, showed that short period comets originate in the Kuiper belt. [31] [32] Tremaine is credited with suggesting that the apparent "double nucleus" of the Andromeda Galaxy was in fact a single ring of old red stars. [33]

Awards and honours

In 2020, he was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020. [34]

In 2013, he won the Tomalla Foundation Prize for his work on gravitational dynamics.

In 2010, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto "in recognition of his scholarly contributions to the field of astrophysics, and his administrative leadership in support of Canadian and international science". [35]

In 2005, he won the Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

In 2002, he was elected to membership in the National Academy of Sciences.

In 1999, Tremaine also received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from St. Mary's University.

In 1998, he won the Dirk Brouwer Award which is awarded by the Division of Dynamical Astronomy of the American Astronomical Society [36] "in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to a wide range of dynamical problems in both solar-system and galactic dynamics." [28]

In 1997, he was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics for "diverse and insightful applications of dynamics to planets, rings, comets, galaxies and the universe." [24]

In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science award by McMaster University.

In 1994, Tremaine became a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and also of the Royal Society of Canada.

In 1990, he was awarded the Rutherford Memorial Medal in Physics by the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada for "his outstanding contributions to the field to [ sic ] astrophysics, particularly his spectacular success in predicting the properties of planetary ring dynamics and the extraplanetary objects that control them". [37]

In 1990, he won the C.S. Beals Award from the Canadian Astronomical Society which is awarded for outstanding research to a Canadian astronomer or an astronomer working in Canada. [38] [39]

In 1983, he won the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy given by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of "his many outstanding contributions to a wide range of dynamical problems in both solar-system and galactic dynamics". [28] [40]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Scott Duncan Tremaine (1950– )". Virtual Museum of Canada. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  2. ↑ "Scott Duncan TREMAINE". Canadian Who's Who 1997 edition on the web. University of Toronto Press.[ permanent dead link ]
  3. ↑ "Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660–2007". London: The Royal Society. Archived from the original on 24 March 2010. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
  4. ↑ "Tremaine Follows Bahcall's Stellar Path at the Institute". Town Topics . Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  5. ↑ "The Institute Letter". Institute for Advanced Studies. Archived from the original on 3 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  6. ↑ "Bond awarded Dannie Heineman Prize". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  7. ↑ "Canadian Asteroids". Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Archived from the original on 6 January 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  8. ↑ "Asteroid 3806 named after eminent Canadian astrophysicist". Discovery Channel. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  9. ↑ "Look, up in the Sky". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  10. ↑ "McMaster Times – Spring 1997". Archived from the original on 29 September 2005. Retrieved 28 May 2007.
  11. ↑ "Asteroids (minor planets) related to UofT people". Archived from the original on 17 November 2002. Retrieved 28 May 2007.
  12. ↑ John Davies (2001). Beyond Pluto: Exploring the outer limits of the solar system. Cambridge University Press. p. 191.
  13. ↑ "Institute for Advanced Study: Faculty and Emeriti: Tremaine". Institute for Advanced Study. Archived from the original on 29 January 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  14. ↑ "Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics". University of Toronto's The Bulletin. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  15. 1 2 "Featured speakers for the CUPC 2003". Canadian Undergraduate Physics Conference. Archived from the original on 7 December 2004. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  16. ↑ "Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics". University of Toronto Bulletin. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
  17. ↑ "ASTROPHYSICIST SCOTT TREMAINE JOINS THE FACULTY OF THE INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY". Institute for Advanced Study. Archived from the original on 19 December 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  18. ↑ "Top physicist gains stellar appointment". University of Toronto. Retrieved 9 April 2007.[ dead link ]
  19. ↑ "SIGCHI organizers". Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 30 May 2007.
  20. ↑ NASA/JPL/Ron Baalke. "Historical Background of Saturn's Rings". Calvin J. Hamilton. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  21. ↑ "Chaos Seen in Movement of Ring-Herding Moons of Saturn". NASA/JPL. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  22. ↑ "New Clues Emerge in Mystery of Planetary Rings". The New York Times. 27 June 1989. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  23. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions About Saturn's Rings". NASA. Archived from the original on 5 November 1999. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  24. 1 2 "Cosmologist Scott Tremaine receives two honors". Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Archived from the original on 11 October 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  25. ↑ "UofT Asteroids". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 17 November 2002. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  26. ↑ Binney, J. & Tremaine, S. "Galactic Dynamics". Princeton University Press. Archived from the original on 20 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  27. ↑ "Scott Tremaine". International Center for Scientific Research. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  28. 1 2 3 "Tremaine to Receive 1997 Brouwer Award". Harvard University. Archived from the original on 9 May 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  29. ↑ Citations for 1987gady.book.....B from the ADS Databases. NASA's Astrophysical Data System. 1987. Bibcode:1987gady.book.....B.
  30. ↑ "Binney:Galactic Dynamics – Google Scholar" . Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  31. ↑ "Where Comets Come From". Discovery Magazine. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  32. ↑ KENNETH CHANG (12 September 2006). "Pluto's Exotic Playmates". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  33. ↑ "Hubble Finds Mysterious Disk of Blue Stars Around A Black Hole". Science Daily. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  34. ↑ "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 30 September 2020.
  35. ↑ "News | University of Toronto".
  36. ↑ "U. of T. The Bulletin, June 9/97, Faculty of Arts & Science". University of Toronto. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  37. ↑ "RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada : Rutherford Memorial Medals in Physics". The Royal Society of Canada. Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  38. ↑ "Winners of the Canadian C.S. Beals Award". Canadian Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 9 July 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  39. ↑ "Carlyle Smith Beals (1899–1979)" . Retrieved 9 April 2007.
  40. ↑ "AAS Prizes and Awards". American Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 9 April 2007.
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