Roger Blandford

Roger David Blandford, FRS, FRAS (born 1949) is a British theoretical astrophysicist, best known for his work on black holes.

Roger David Blandford
Roger Blandford in 2016.
Born (1949-08-28) 28 August 1949
Grantham, Lincolnshire
NationalityBritish
Alma materMagdalene College, Cambridge
St John's College, Cambridge
Institute for Advanced Study
AwardsHelen B. Warner Prize (1982)
Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics (1998)
Eddington Medal (1999)
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (2013)
Shaw Prize (2020)
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
InstitutionsCalifornia Institute of Technology
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
Stanford University
Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology
Doctoral advisorMartin Rees
Doctoral studentsLars Hernquist

Early life

Blandford was born in Grantham, England and grew up in Birmingham.

Career

Blandford is famous in the astrophysical community for the Blandford-Znajek process which is a mechanism for powering relativistic jets by the extraction of rotational energy from a black hole.[1] The Blandford-Znajek mechanism has been invoked by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration to explain the jet power in the first observation of a black hole shadow in the giant elliptical galaxy M87.[2] Blandford also theorized another mechanism for jet formation through hydromagnetic winds launched from accretion disks.[3] In addition to the Blandford-Znajek and Blandford-Payne mechanisms for the formation of relativistic jets, Roger Blandford also helped devise a widely used theoretical model for jet geometric and spectral properties, the Blandford-Königl conical jet model,[4] used to predict radio shifts and low-frequency spectral slopes for optically thick jet cores.[5] He has also made significant contributions to other astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae, by extending the Sedov-Taylor blast wave solution to the ultra-relativistic limit of the Blandford-McKee solution.[6]

In April 2005 he wrote a letter to the astronomy community showing his concern about the George W. Bush administration US space science policy.[7]

He is also the chair of Astro2010, the decadal survey that helps define and recommend funding priorities for U.S. astronomy research in the upcoming decade. The Astro2010 report was released August 13, 2010.[8]

Positions

Blandford is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[9] He is currently Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, Professor of Physics at Stanford University and at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory.[10] He was the Pehong and Adele Chen Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology from 2003 to 2013.[10][11] He was a co-editor of the Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2005–2011).[12][13]

Awards

References
  1. R. D. Blandford and R. L. Znajek, "Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes", Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. 179:433-456 (1977).
  2. The Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, "First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole" The Astrophysical Journal Letters 875:L1 (2019)
  3. R. D. Blandford and D. G. Payne, "Hydromagnetic flows from accretion disks and the production of radio jets", Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc. 199:883–903 (1982).
  4. R. D. Blandford and A. Königl, "Relativistic Jets as Compact Radio Sources", ApJ. 232:34-48 (1979).
  5. S. P. O'Sullivan and D. C. Gabuzda, "Magnetic field strength and spectral distribution of six parsec-scale active galactic nuclei jets" Mon. Not. R. Astr. Soc 400:26-42 (2009)
  6. R. D. Blandford and C. F. McKee, "Fluid Dynamics of Relativistic Blast Waves", Physics of Fluids 19:1130-1138. (1976)
  7. Exploring the Universe - Physics Today April 2005 Archived 2007-04-17 at the Wayback Machine
  8. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. 2010. doi:10.17226/12951. ISBN 978-0-309-15799-5.
  9. SLAC HEP Faculty: Roger Blandford Archived 2007-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
  10. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-06-16. Retrieved 2013-08-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-09-27. Retrieved 2013-08-10.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. "Preface". Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics. 47 (1). 2009. doi:10.1146/annurev.aa.47.082009.100001. ISSN 0066-4146.
  13. "EDITOR OF THE ANNUAL REVIEW OF ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS - VOLUME 49, 2011". Annual Reviews. Retrieved 28 July 2021.
  14. "AAS Fellows". AAS. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
  15. Shaw Prize 2020
  16. "The Crafoord Prizes in Mathematics and Astronomy 2016". Crafoord Prize. 13 January 2016. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
  17. "2013 winners of the RAS awards, medals and prizes". Royal Astronomical Society. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
  18. https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/web/23331918.html
  19. "Eddington Medal | The Royal Astronomical Society". ras.ac.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
  20. "Roger D. Blandford received the Dannie Heineman Prize 1998 of the American Astronomical Society.", Physics Today, 51 (7): R79, 1998, Bibcode:1998PhT....51R..79., doi:10.1063/1.2805876
  21. "Roger D. Blandford received the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society.", Physics Today, 36 (4): Q68, 1983, Bibcode:1983PhT....36Q..68., doi:10.1063/1.2915596
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