Wolszczan Honored at Extreme Solar Systems Conference
Alexander Wolszczan, Evan Pugh Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State, was honored at the Extreme Solar Systems Conference in Santorini, Greece in June 2007. The conference was scheduled to coincide with the 15th anniversary of Wolszczan's discovery of, the first extrasolar planets to be detected, the PSR B1257+12 planetary system. The conference also honored Wolszczan on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The main themes of the conference were detection and characterization of Earth-like planets, planets in extreme environments, planets around evolved stars, and the habitability of extreme planets. Wolszczan presented the first talk of the opening session of the conference, in which he reviewed the history and current status of our understanding of the PSR B1257+12 planetary system as well as scenarios for the formation of planets around neutron stars and the relevance of this knowledge to the understanding of the formation and evolution of planetary systems around other stars.
Wolszczan became the first person to discover planets outside our solar system in 1992, when he used the 1,000-foot Arecibo radiotelescope to detect three planets orbiting a rapidly spinning neutron star. This discovery opened the door to the current intense era of planet hunting by suggesting that planet formation could be quite common throughout the universe and that planets can form around different types of stellar objects. In August 2007, Wolszczan announced the discovery of a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a red-giant star, the first planet to be discovered in a long-term project using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope to collect extensive data on more than 1,000 likely candidate stars.
In 2004, Wolszczan was honored with the Polish American Heritage Award, the most prestigious award bestowed by the Illinois Polish American Congress, during the 35th Annual Polish American Heritage Celebration. The Heritage Award is given to an individual who has achieved excellence in a career and has brought great pride to Polish-American people. In 2002, he was honored in Poland by having his likeness featured on a special set of postage stamps celebrating the past millennium. Also featured on the stamp was Nicolaus Copernicus-considered by many to be the founder of modern astronomy.
Among Wolszczan's many other honors are the 2001 Marian Smoluchowski Medal, the highest prize awarded by the Polish Physical Society, and an Annual Award from the Foundation for Polish Science in 1992. He received the Beatrice M. Tinsley Award from the American Astronomical Society in 1996 and the "Best of What's New" Grand Award from Popular Science magazine in 1994. Wolszczan was awarded a Penn State Faculty Scholar Medal for Outstanding Achievement in 1994. In 1998, he was named an Evan Pugh Professor at Penn State, the highest distinction the University bestows upon a faculty member.
Wolszczan received his master's degree in astronomy in 1969 and his doctoral degree in physics in 1975 from Nikolaus Copernicus University in Poland. Before coming to Penn State in 1992, he conducted research at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico from 1983 to 1992 as a research associate and senior research associate with Cornell University. He was a research associate at the Polish Academy of Sciences Copernicus Astronomical Center from 1979 to 1983 and was an assistant professor at Nikolaus Copernicus University from 1974 to 1979. Wolszczan has held positions as visiting scientist or visiting professor at Princeton University and the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany.
He is a researcher in the Penn State Institute for Gravitational Physics and Geometry, a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union, the International Union of Radio Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America. Wolszczan also is a fellow of the World Innovation Foundation.
CONTACTS:
Alexander Wolszczan: (+1) 814-863-1756, axw5@psu.edu
Barbara Kennedy: (+1) 814-863-4682, science@psu.edu