Stanislav George Djorgovski

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Stanislav George Djorgovski (born 1956) is an American scientist and scholar. [1] He obtained his B.A. in astrophysics in 1979 at the University of Belgrade. After receiving his PhD in astronomy from U.C. Berkeley in 1985, [2] he was a Harvard Junior Fellow until 1987 [3] when he joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology, where he is currently a professor of astronomy and data science. [4]

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Selected awards and recognitions

Prof. Djorgovski was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1988–1991), a presidential young investigator (1991–1997), one of the ISI 1000 most cited physicists, 1981 – 1997, a visiting distinguished professor, Mexican Academy of Sciences (2004), and a distinguished visiting professor, King Abdulaziz University (2011–2012). He received the Dudley Observatory Award (1991), the NASA Group Achievement Award (1996), and won the First Prize in the Boeing-Griffith Science Writing Contest (2008). He was elected as a Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering (2001), and as a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (2014). [5] The asteroid 24421 Djorgovski is named in his honor. [6] His Erdős number is 2. [7] [ circular reference ]

Contributions in astronomy and cosmology

Djorgovski has worked on numerous topics in astronomy and cosmology, including galaxy formation and evolution, fundamental properties of early-type galaxies, globular clusters, gravitational lenses, quasars, gamma-ray bursts, cosmological tests, large digital sky survey, exploration of the time domain in astronomy, etc. His publications include several hundred papers in professional journals and conferences and a large number of electronic publications. [8] Some notable discoveries include: pioneering studies of radio galaxies beyond z > 1, including detections of strong evolutionary effects, alignment effects, and K-band Hubble diagram for radio galaxies (with H. Spinrad and others); discovery of collapsed cores in globular clusters, and the first census thereof (with I.R. King); systematic studies of the properties of globular clusters and their stellar populations (with G. Meylan, G. Piotto, and others); discovery of globular clusters Djorgovski 1 and Djorgovski 2; discovery of the first known galaxy at z > 3, pioneering use of Lyα narrow-band imaging for discoveries of high-z galaxies, and pioneering near-IR searches for protogalaxies (with various collaborators); discovery of the Fundamental plane (elliptical galaxies) correlations for elliptical galaxies (with M. Davis), and its use for systematic studies of fundamental properties, formation, and evolution of ellipticals (with R.R. de Carvalho and others); discoveries of the first examples of binary quasars, a systematic census of them, the first case of a triple quasar, and several tens of gravitational lenses; the first application of the Tolman test for the universal expansion (with M. Pahre); the first GRB redshift, demonstrating the cosmological nature of GRBs, and pioneering studies of GRB afterglows and host galaxies (with M. Metzger, S.R. Kulkarni, D. Frail, and others); pioneering exploration of the time domain with digital synoptic sky surveys (with A.A. Mahabal, M.J. Graham, A.J. Drake, C. Donalek, E. Glikman, and others). Prof. Djorgovski was the principal investigator of the Digital Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DPOSS; 1992 – 2002); a Co-PI (with C. Baltay), Palomar-Quest synoptic sky survey (PQ, 2003 – 2008); and the PI, Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey (CRTS; 2008 – 2020). [9]

Contributions in e-science, data science and science informatics

Djorgovski is one of the founders of Virtual observatory. He organized the first international conference on the subject, [10] chaired the US National Virtual Observatory Science Definition Team (NVO SDT) that generated the initial VO roadmap, [11] and he was one of the founders of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance. [12] With his team in the 1990s, he pioneered the uses of machine learning tools for analysis of large digital sky surveys. He has been one of the founders of the emerging field of AstroInformatics and he co-organized (with G. Longo and others) a series of the foundational conferences on the subject. [13] He is the founding director of the Center for Data-Driven Discovery at Caltech. [14] He was also the director of the Meta-Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA), the first professional scientific organization based in virtual worlds. [15] He was the founding president of the International AstroInformatics Association, the first professional organization in this field. [16]

Teaching and outreach

Djorgovski teaches open online courses including: The Evolving Universe, [17] hosted by the online learning platform edX, and Galaxies and Cosmology on Coursera. [18] He also co-organized the first virtual summer school on Big Data Analytics. [19] Materials used in the classes he taught at Caltech are linked through his website. [20] With his team, Prof. Djorgovski produced the digital image of the Virgo cluster, displayed as the "Big Picture" mural at the Griffith Observatory, the largest astronomical image in the world, seen by millions of visitors so far. [21] He also made contributions to the WorldWide Telescope sky browser.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quasar</span> Active galactic nucleus containing a supermassive black hole

A quasar is an extremely luminous active galactic nucleus (AGN). It is sometimes known as a quasi-stellar object, abbreviated QSO. The emission from an AGN is powered by a supermassive black hole with a mass ranging from millions to tens of billions of solar masses, surrounded by a gaseous accretion disc. Gas in the disc falling towards the black hole heats up because of friction and releases energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The radiant energy of quasars is enormous; the most powerful quasars have luminosities thousands of times greater than that of a galaxy such as the Milky Way. Usually, quasars are categorized as a subclass of the more general category of AGN. The redshifts of quasars are of cosmological origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stellar population</span> Grouping of stars by similar metallicity

In 1944, Walter Baade categorized groups of stars within the Milky Way into stellar populations. In the abstract of the article by Baade, he recognizes that Jan Oort originally conceived this type of classification in 1926.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palomar Observatory</span> Astronomical observatory in Southern California

Palomar Observatory is an astronomical research observatory in San Diego County, California, United States, in the Palomar Mountain Range. It is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Research time at the observatory is granted to Caltech and its research partners, which include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Yale University, and the National Optical Observatories of China.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2MASS</span> Astronomical survey of the whole sky in the infrared

The Two Micron All-Sky Survey, or 2MASS, was an astronomical survey of the whole sky in infrared light. It took place between 1997 and 2001, in two different locations: at the U.S. Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, and at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, each using a 1.3-meter telescope for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere, respectively. It was conducted in the short-wavelength infrared at three distinct frequency bands near 2 micrometres, from which the photometric survey with its HgCdTe detectors derives its name.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Halton Arp</span> American astronomer

Halton Christian "Chip" Arp was an American astronomer. He was known for his 1966 Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, which catalogues many examples of interacting and merging galaxies, though Arp disputed the idea, claiming apparent associations were prime examples of ejections. Arp published Seeing Red: Redshift, Cosmology and Academic Science in 1998. Arp was also known as a critic of the Big Bang theory and for advocating a non-standard cosmology incorporating intrinsic redshift.

The Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) is a digitized version of several photographic astronomical surveys of the night sky, produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute between 1983 and 2006.

A dark galaxy is a hypothesized galaxy with no stars. They received their name because they have no visible stars but may be detectable if they contain significant amounts of gas. Astronomers have long theorized the existence of dark galaxies, but there are no confirmed examples to date. Dark galaxies are distinct from intergalactic gas clouds caused by galactic tidal interactions, since these gas clouds do not contain dark matter, so they do not technically qualify as galaxies. Distinguishing between intergalactic gas clouds and galaxies is difficult; most candidate dark galaxies turn out to be tidal gas clouds. The best candidate dark galaxies to date include HI1225+01, AGC229385, and numerous gas clouds detected in studies of quasars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shrinivas Kulkarni</span> American-Indian astronomer (born 1956)

Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni is a US-based astronomer born and raised in India. He is currently a professor of astronomy and planetary science at California Institute of Technology, and he served as director of Caltech Optical Observatory (COO) at California Institute of Technology, in which capacity he oversaw the Palomar and Keck among other telescopes. He is the recipient of a number of awards and honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Niel Brandt</span>

William Nielsen Brandt is the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics and a professor of physics at the Pennsylvania State University. He is best known for his work on active galaxies, cosmological X-ray surveys, starburst galaxies, normal galaxies, and X-ray binaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galaxy filament</span> Largest structures in the universe, made of galaxies

In cosmology, galaxy filaments are the largest known structures in the universe, consisting of walls of gravitationally bound galactic superclusters. These massive, thread-like formations can reach 80 megaparsecs h−1 and form the boundaries between voids. Galaxy filaments form the cosmic web and define the overall structure of the observable universe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRB 970508</span> Gamma-ray burst detected on May 8, 1997

GRB 970508 was a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected on May 8, 1997, at 21:42 UTC; it is historically important as the second GRB with a detected afterglow at other wavelengths, the first to have a direct redshift measurement of the afterglow, and the first to be detected at radio wavelengths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astroinformatics</span> Interdisciplinary field of study

Astroinformatics is an interdisciplinary field of study involving the combination of astronomy, data science, machine learning, informatics, and information/communications technologies. The field is closely related to astrostatistics.

A large quasar group (LQG) is a collection of quasars that form what are thought to constitute the largest astronomical structures in the observable universe. LQGs are thought to be precursors to the sheets, walls and filaments of galaxies found in the relatively nearby universe.

Judith Gamora Cohen, is an American astronomer and the Kate Van Nuys Page Professor of Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology. She is a recognized expert regarding the Milky Way Galaxy, particularly with respect to the Galaxy's outer halo. She also played a key role in the design and construction of the Keck Telescope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 4478</span> Galaxy in the constellation of Virgo

NGC 4478 is an elliptical galaxy located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. NGC 4478 was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on April 12, 1784. NGC 4478 is a member of the Virgo Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georges Meylan</span> Swiss astronomer

Georges Meylan is a Swiss astronomer, born on July 31, 1950 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was the director of the Laboratory of Astrophysics of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland, and now a professor emeritus of astrophysics and cosmology at EPFL. He is still active in both research and teaching.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NGC 3309</span> Galaxy in the constellation Hydra

NGC 3309 is a giant elliptical galaxy located about 200 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra. NGC 3309 was discovered by astronomer John Herschel on March 24, 1835. The galaxy forms a pair with NGC 3311 which lies about 72,000 ly (22 kpc) away. Both galaxies dominate the center of the Hydra Cluster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Lawrence (astronomer)</span> British astrophysicist

Andrew Lawrence is a British astrophysicist. He is Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh based at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

References

  1. ↑ "S. George Djorgovski". pma.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  2. ↑ "Alumni - BAD Grads". Badgrads.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 4 October 2012.
  3. ↑ "Current and Former Junior Fellows by Field". Socfell.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  4. ↑ "Stanislav G. (George) Djorgovski | Caltech Directory". Directory.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2012-10-04.
  5. ↑ AAAS Members Elected as Fellows, Science, vol. 346, p. 1070 (2014).
  6. ↑ Alan Chamberlin. "JPL Small-Body Database Browser". Ssd.jpl.nasa.gov. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  7. ↑ "List of people by Erdős number". en.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  8. ↑ "George's Bibliography". Astro.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2015-02-23.
  9. ↑ "The CRTS Survey". Crts.caltech.edu. 2013-01-30. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  10. ↑ "Virtual Observatories of the Future". aspbooks.org. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  11. ↑ "Science Definition For The Virtual Observatory – US Virtual Astronomical Observatory" (PDF). www.virtualobservatory.org. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  12. ↑ "International Virtual Observatory Alliance". ivoa.net. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  13. ↑ "AstroInformatics 2010". AstroInformatics 2010. 2010-06-19. Retrieved 2015-02-23.
  14. ↑ "center for data-driven discovery". Cd3.caltech.edu. 2014-10-03. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  15. ↑ Djorgovski, S. G.; Hut, Piet; Knop, Rob; Longo, Giuseppe; McMillan, Steve; Vesperini, Enrico; Donalek, Ciro; Graham, Matthew; Mahabal, Asish; Sauer, Franz; White, Charles; Lopes, Crista (2013). "The MICA Experiment: Astrophysics in Virtual Worlds". arXiv: 1301.6808 [astro-ph.IM].
  16. ↑ "International AstroInformatics Association". www.astroinformatics.info. 2019-07-01. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  17. ↑ "The Evolving Universe". edX. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  18. ↑ "Free Online Courses From Top Universities". Coursera. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  19. ↑ "Coursera - Free Online Courses From Top Universities". Class.coursera.org. Retrieved 2015-02-22.
  20. ↑ "Teaching". Astro.caltech.edu. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
  21. ↑ "The Big Picture - Griffith Observatory". griffithobservatory.org. Retrieved 2021-11-11.
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