Alex Filippenko facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alex Filippenko
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Alexei Vladimir Filippenko
July 25, 1958 Oakland, California, U.S.
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| Education | University of California, Santa Barbara (B.A. 1979) California Institute of Technology (Ph.D. 1984) |
| Known for | Studies of supernovae, active galaxies, black holes, accelerating expansion of the Universe |
| Spouse(s) | Noelle Filippenko |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards | Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy Guggenheim Fellowship Gruber Prize in Cosmology Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year Richard H. Emmons Award Robert M. Petrie Prize Richtmyer Memorial Award Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | University of California, Berkeley |
| Thesis | Physical conditions in low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (1984) |
| Doctoral advisor | Wallace L. W. Sargent |
| Other academic advisors | Stanton J. Peale Hyron Spinrad |
Alexei Vladimir "Alex" Filippenko (/fɪlɪˈpɛnkoʊ/; born July 25, 1958) is an American astrophysicist. He is a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Professor Filippenko went to Dos Pueblos High School in California. He earned his first degree in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979. He then got his Ph.D. in astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1984. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1986. His work focuses on supernovae (exploding stars) and active galaxies. He also studies black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and how the Universe expands.
Contents
Research
Alex Filippenko was part of two big science teams. These teams were the Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z Supernova Search Team. They studied a type of exploding star called Type Ia supernovae. Their observations helped them discover that the Universe is expanding faster and faster. This means there is something called dark energy pushing it apart. This discovery was named the top science breakthrough of 1998. It also led to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the leaders of these teams.
Robotic Telescope Work
Professor Filippenko created and runs the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT). This is a fully robotic telescope. It helps with the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS). From 1998 to 2008, KAIT found over 650 supernovae. This made it the most successful supernova search in the world at that time.
Supernovae and Galaxies
His research uses special tools to look at light from space. He showed that many supernovae happen when giant stars lose parts of their outer layers. He also helped identify different types of supernovae. His work showed that many supernovae are not perfectly round. He also found that Type Ia supernovae are not all the same. This was important for using them to measure distances in space.
Filippenko's early work also showed that the centers of most bright galaxies are very active. This activity is like what happens in quasars. It's caused by gas falling into a supermassive black hole. He also worked with the Nuker Team. They used the Hubble Space Telescope to study supermassive black holes. They found a link between a galaxy's central black hole and its speed of movement. He also found strong proof of stellar-mass black holes in several star systems. His robotic telescope also made early measurements of light from gamma-ray bursts.
A group called Thompson-Reuters ranked Filippenko as the most cited space science researcher. This was for the ten years between 1996 and 2006.
In the media
Professor Filippenko often appears on TV shows. He has been in the History Channel series The Universe. He also appeared in How the Universe Works. In total, he has been in more than 120 science documentaries.
He has also created and taught several video courses. One is an eight-volume series called Understanding the Universe. This series has 96 half-hour lessons. It covers what you would learn in an introductory astronomy class. His other video courses include Black Holes Explained and Skywatching: Seeing and Understanding Cosmic Wonders.
With his co-author Jay M. Pasachoff, Filippenko wrote a textbook. It's called The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium. This book has won awards and is now in its fifth edition.
Honors and awards
Alex Filippenko has received many awards for his work. In 1992, he won the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy. He also received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000. In 1997, he gave the Petrie Prize Lecture for his important work in astrophysics.
In 2007, he was recognized with the Gruber Cosmology Prize. This was for his work with Adam G. Riess. They made very precise measurements of distant supernovae. These measurements helped confirm that the Universe is expanding faster and faster. (Adam Riess later shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.) Filippenko was also elected to important science groups. These include the California Academy of Sciences in 1999 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. In 2015, he joined the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He became a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2021. He also shared the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He shared it with other scientists and the teams who discovered the accelerating Universe.
He has also won many awards for his teaching. In 2007, he received the Richtmyer Memorial Award. In 2004, he won the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. In 2006, he was named the US National Professor of the Year. This award recognizes excellent college professors. He also won the 2010 Richard H. Emmons Award for teaching astronomy. In 2022, he received the American Astronomical Society's Education Prize. At Berkeley, students have voted him "Best Professor" nine times.
He was the President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific from 2001 to 2003. He received distinguished alumni awards from UC Santa Barbara in 1988 and Caltech in 2017.
Personal life
Alex Filippenko is married to Noelle Filippenko. They have four children: Zoe, Simon, Caprielle, and Orion.
See also
In Spanish: Alexei Filippenko para niños
