Robert Kennicutt
Robert C. Kennicutt, Jr. (born September 4, 1951 in Baltimore , Maryland ) is an American astronomer . He is the Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University .
Kennicutt studied physics at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York . He received his bachelor's degree there in 1973 . In 1976 he graduated from the University of Washington with a master's degree in astronomy . At the same university he received his Ph. D. in 1978 . He then worked at the Hale Observatory and CalTech as well as at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona . In 1983 he received a research grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation ( Sloan Research Fellowship ). In 2005 he went to the University of Cambridge .
From 1999 to 2006 he was editor-in-chief of the Astrophysical Journal .
In 2001 Kenicutt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and in 2006 to the National Academy of Sciences . In 2007 he was awarded the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics , and in 2009 he received the Gruber Prize for Cosmology . In 2011 he was elected a member of the Royal Society . For 2019 he was awarded the Gold Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society , the NAS Award for Scientific Reviewing and the Van Vleck Lecture .
His research areas are the structure and evolution of galaxies and the formation of stars in galaxies.
The empirical Kennicutt-Schmidt relationship , which connects the (surface) density of neutral gas in the galaxy with the star formation rate, goes back to Kennicutt .
Web links
- Literature by and about Robert Kennicutt in the catalog of the German National Library
- Short biography
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kennicutt, Robert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kennicutt, Robert C. Jr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th September 1951 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baltimore , Maryland |