31.05.2017 change 31.05.2017

Dan David Prizes presented in Tel Aviv - Prof. Udalski is one of the laureates

Professor Andrzej Udalski from the Astronomical Observatory of the University of Warsaw received prestigious Dan David Prize in Tel Aviv (Israel) on Sunday. He is one of the three winners of this year\'s award in the Future category.

The University of Warsaw reported on awarding the prize on its website. Despite its only 15-year history, the Dan David Prize is one of the most prestigious scientific awards in the world. In the rankings of the world scientific prizes, the list of which the Nobel Prize opens, the Dan David Prize takes place in the middle of the top ten - we read in the university release.

The Dan David Prize is an international honour awarded by the University of Tel Aviv and the Dan David Foundation for breakthrough scientific, technological, cultural and social achievements.

Professor Udalski has been honoured for his contribution to the development of a new field of astronomical research - large-scale sky surveys conducted over a wide range of time scales. The scientist from the University of Warsaw received the award in the Future category.

The other laureates in the same category were Prof. Neil Gehrels of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Principal Investigator of the Swift Gamma Ray Burst Mission that laid the groundwork for gamma radiation astrophysics (died in February this year), and Prof. Shrinivas Kulkarni of the California Institute of Technology, creator of the photometric sky survey PTF, director of the world\'s largest astronomical observatories Keck in Hawaii and Mount Palomar in California. Laureates will share a $ 1 million prize.

As the University of Warsaw reminded in its release, Prof. Andrzej Udalski is the director and co-author of the largest observation project in the history of Polish astronomy "OGLE - The Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment", which has been bringing scientific discoveries of the highest global rank for twenty-five years. The professor is also the creator of modern cameras, which allow to survey large areas of the sky in detail. He also participated in the construction of the Polish Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. OGLE-IV received a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant of € 2.5 million in 2009 for the fourth phase of the project.

Research conducted in the OGLE project brought groundbreaking discoveries in the field of extrasolar planets. For the first time, two new detection techniques have been used successfully - the "transit" method and the gravitational microlensing method - which has led to the discovery of several planets orbiting other stars. Variable stars discovered and characterised in the OGLE project form the world\'s largest collection of about one million objects.

Cosmic explosions are also regularly detected - novae, dwarf novae, and large explosions caused by supernovae. OGLE astronomers have found a number of previously unknown dwarf planets in the Solar System, as well as many interesting objects outside our galaxy - quasars - and other galaxies. Thanks to OGLE observations, the Milky Way and neighbouring galaxies - the Magellanic Clouds have been understood better.

Prof. Andrzej Udalski is the author and co-author of 450 papers published in the world\'s top scientific journals and cited more than 18 thousand times.

The Dan David Prize awards ceremony took place on 21 May at the University of Tel Aviv. The names of the laureates were announced in February.

The Dan David Prize has been awarded since 2002 in three categories: Past (past achievements), Present (achievements enriching and shaping modern society) and Future (achievements focused on breakthrough research promising a better understanding of the world in the future). Every year in each of these categories specific scientific disciplines are selected, in which the laureates are then selected. The prize in each category is $ 1 million.

In previous editions, Dan David Prize has been awarded to historian Jacques Le Goff, economist Anthony B. Atkinson, writer and professor of literature Amos Oz, politicians Tony Blair and Al Gore.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

lt/ agt/ kap/

tr. RL

Przed dodaniem komentarza prosimy o zapoznanie z Regulaminem forum serwisu Nauka w Polsce.

Copyright © Foundation PAP 2024