Jansky Prize
The Karl G. Jansky Lectureship
Karl G. Jansky
The Karl G. Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the
trustees of Associated Universities, Inc., to recognize outstanding
contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy. First awarded in
1966, it is named in honor of the man who, in 1932, first detected
radio waves from a cosmic source. Karl Jansky's discovery of radio
waves from the central region of our Milky Way Galaxy started the
science of radio astronomy.
The recipient of this award will present the annual Karl G. Jansky Lecture in Charlottesville, Virginia and in Socorro, New Mexico. The public lecture will be astronomical in nature. Professional astronomical symposia in NRAO facilities will be conducted prior to the evening lectures.
Recipients of the Jansky Lectureship
The recipients of the Karl G. Jansky Lectureship, the year of their
award, their institutional affiliations, and the titles of their
lectures, are listed below.
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Measuring the Cosmos
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology
Radio Astronomy from Jansky to the Future: an Engineer’s Point of View
Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics
California Institute of Technology
The Central Engines that Power Active Galaxies
University of California, San Diego
Finding the Gas that Makes Galaxies
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie
Tuning in to the Molecular Universe
2006 - Dr. Frank J. Low
Infrared Laboratories, Inc.
How the Spitzer Space Telescope was Designed, Tested and Built
2005 - Dr. Rashid A. Sunyaev
Director, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation, Clusters of Galaxies and Cosmology
2004 - Dr. Ronald D. Ekers
Australia Telescope National Facility
Paths to Discovery
2003 - Dr. Donald C. Backer
Radio Astronomy Laboratory, University of California at Berkeley
Massive Black Holes, Gravitational Waves, and Pulsars
2002 - Dr. Shrinivas (Shri) Kulkarni
California Institute of Technology
The Brightest Explosions in the Universe
2001 - Dr. William J. (Jack) Welch
University of California at Berkeley
Astronomical Arrays of the Future; Astronomy, SETI, and More
2000 - Dr. V. Radhakrishnan
Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India
Astronomy's Devices
1999 - Dr. Frank D. Drake
SETI Institute and University of California, Santa Cruz
Progress in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
1998 - Dr. Bernard Burke
William A. M. Burden Professor of Astrophysics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Radio Telescopes: Reaching for the Astronomical Frontiers
1997 - Dr. P. James E. Peebles
Princeton University
The Big Bang and Our Evolving Universe
1996 - Dr. James M. Moran
Harvard University and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Brilliant Masers and Mysterious Black Holes
1995 - Dr. Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
Tick, Tick, Tick, Pulsating Star, How We Wonder What You Are
1994 - Dr. Vera C. Rubin
Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism
What's the Matter in the Universe
1993 - Dr. David S. Heeschen
Former Director, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
The Development of Radio Astronomy in the United States
1992 - Dr. Irwin I. Shapiro
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Reckoning the Size of the Universe Through Gravitational Lenses
1991 - Dr. Allan R. Sandage
The Observatories of Carnegie Institution
The Quest for the Curvature of Space
1990 - Prof. Alan H. Barrett
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (Emeritus)
Molecular Radio Astronomy: The Beginnings
1989 - Prof. Joseph H. Taylor
Dept. of Physics, Princeton University (Nobel Prize 1993)
Time and the Nature of the Universe
1988 - Prof. William A. Fowler
Professor of Physics, Emeritus
California Institute of Technology (Nobel Prize 1983)
The Age of the Observable Universe
1987 - Prof. Hendrik van de Hulst
University of Leiden, The Netherlands
Far from the Stars
1986 - Prof. Robert Hanbury Brown
Department of Physics, University of Sydney
Stars, Photons, and Uncommon Sense
1985 - Prof. G. R. Burbidge
University of California, San Diego
How Strange the Violent Universe?
1984 - Dr. Robert W. Wilson
Head, Radio Physics Research Department, Bell Laboratories (Nobel Prize 1978)
Millimeter Wave Astronomy
1983 - Dr. Arno Penzias
Vice President, Research, Bell Laboratories (Nobel Prize 1978)
The Astronomical Origin of the Earth's Materials
1982 - Prof. Philip Morrison
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The New Waves: Fifty Years of Radio Astronomy
1981 - Prof. Martin Rees
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, and Director, Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge, England
The Next Hundred Billion Years
1980 - Dr. Martin Schwarzschild
Princeton University
What Shape Galaxies, Pancakes or Potatoes?
1979 - Dr. Maarten Schmidt
Director, Hale Observatories
Quasars as Probes of the Early Universe
1978 - Prof. Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago (Nobel Prize 1983)
General Relativity in Astronomy at Einstein's Centennial
1977 - Prof. E. Margaret Burbidge
University of California, San Diego
Galaxies, Quasars, and the Space Telescope
1976 - Prof. Edward M. Purcell
Harvard University (Nobel Prize 1952)
A Story of Spinning Particles
1975 - Dr. Grote Reber
CSIRO, Tasmania, Australia
Beginning of Radio Astronomy
1974 - Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr.
Chairman, Dept. of Astrophysical Sciences; Director, Princeton University Observatory
A Space Astronomer Looks at the Interstellar Medium
1973 - Dr. J. Paul Wild
Chief, Division of Radiophysics, CSIRO, Sydney, Australia
Exploring the Sun with Radio Waves
1972 - Prof. Bart J. Bok
Steward Observatory
Star Birth in the Galaxy
1971 - Prof. Charles H. Townes
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley (Nobel Prize 1964)
Exploring for the Creation
1970 - Prof. Robert H. Dicke
Physics Department, Princeton University
Gravitation and the Universe
1969 - Prof. Fred Hoyle
Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy, University of Cambridge, England
The Relationship of Astronomy and Physics
1968 - Prof. J. S. Shklovsky
Head, Radio Astronomy Department, Sternberg Astronomical Institute, USSR
On the Variability of Cosmic Radio Source Emission
1967 - Prof. J. H. Oort
Director, Leiden Observatory
Large-scale Distribution and Motion of Hydrogen in the Galaxy
1966 - Mr. John G. Bolton
Director, Australian National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Radio Astronomy: Steppingstones to Quasars