Robert Kennicutt

Robert Charles Kennicutt, Jr. FRS is an American astronomer. He is a former Plumian Professor of Astronomy at the Institute of Astronomy in the University of Cambridge. He was formerly Editor-in-Chief of the Astrophysical Journal (1999–2006). His research interests include the structure and evolution of galaxies and star formation in galaxies.[2]

Not to be confused with Kennicott.
Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr
Born (1951-09-04) September 4, 1951[1]
Baltimore, MD
NationalityUnited States
Alma materRensselaer Polytechnic Institute
University of Washington
AwardsDannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (2007)
Gruber Prize in Cosmology (2009)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsInstitute of Astronomy, Cambridge
ThesisH II regions as extragalactic distance indicators (1978)

Career

He received his bachelor's degree in physics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1973. He was a graduate student in astronomy at the University of Washington, where he received his master's degree in 1976 and his Ph.D. in 1978.

Kennicutt formulated a version of the Kennicutt–Schmidt law, which is an empirical relation between the gas density and star formation rate (SFR) in a given region.

Research

Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey

Kennicutt is the principal investigator for the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS), a legacy project that performed a multiwavelength survey of 75 nearby galaxies with the Spitzer Space Telescope.[3]

Honors and awards

He was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics in 2007 by the American Astronomical Society. He shared the 2009 Gruber Prize in Cosmology with Wendy Freedman of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Jeremy Mould of the University of Melbourne School of Physics, for their leadership in the definitive measurement of the value of the constant of proportionality in Hubble's Law. He was made a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001 and appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2011. He was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society for Astronomy in 2019. [4]

He was elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020. [5]

References
  1. "Robert Charles KENNICUTT". Debretts. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
  2. "Homepage of Robert Kennicutt". Archived from the original on 2018-01-31. Retrieved 2008-01-26.
  3. R. C. Kennicutt, Jr.; L. Armus; G. Bendo; D. Calzetti; D. A. Dale; B. T. Draine; C. W. Engelbracht; K. D. Gordon; et al. (2003). "SINGS: The SIRTF Nearby Galaxies Survey". Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. 115 (810): 928–952. arXiv:astro-ph/0305437. Bibcode:2003PASP..115..928K. doi:10.1086/376941.
  4. "The Gold Medal" (PDF). RAS. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
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