NCSA NEWS

Alliance's Ostriker Honored with National Medal of Science

released November 21, 2000

Jeremiah Ostriker, an Alliance cosmology team member and a member of the Alliance Executive Committee, was recently awarded the nation's highest scientific honor, the National Medal of Science, by President Clinton.

Ostriker, the Princeton University Provost and a professor of astrophysical sciences, won the medal in the physics category in recognition of his contributions to the field of astrophysics.

Ostriker's work in astrophysics has led to a greater understanding of galactic structure, galaxy formation, cosmology, and the universe as a whole. For example, before the 1970s, the common assumption among astronomers was that almost the entire mass of galaxies was found in visible stars. Ostriker, however, advocated a radical new model for galaxies in which visible stars are only a small component surrounded by a much larger mass of dark matter. This new model dramatically changed scientists' understanding of the size, scale, and mass of the galaxies, and has since been confirmed by observations.

Among his other accomplishments, Ostriker has changed the way the world thinks about the gaseous interstellar medium, the birthplace of stars. He and his coworkers studied how the combination of energy inputs from stellar ionization radiation and powerful supernova explosions changes interstellar matter into the complex multiphase medium in the galaxy, which in turn determines the rate of new star formation. Thus, Ostriker and his research team demonstrated that the birth of stars was a self-regulated system.

Ostriker has also been a pioneer in using sophisticated numerical simulations to study the evolution of the early universe and the formation of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the intergalactic medium. His theoretical simulations of large-scale cosmic structures were incorporated into a space science show at the new Hayden Planetarium in New York and into an episode of the Nova TV series (see http://access.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Headlines/00Headlines/001114.Nova.html).

Additionally, Ostriker has contributed to knowledge on a broad range of other topics, including the structure of oscillations of rotating stars, the stability of galaxies, the evolution of globular clusters, pulsars, x-ray binary stars, the dynamics of clusters of galaxies, gravitational lensing, astrophysical blast waves, quasars, and active galactic nuclei.

Most of his research has been done in collaboration with young researchers, and he has supervised about two dozen Princeton Ph.D. students. Most of his former students are now faculty at research universities.

The National Medal of Science was established by Congress in 1959. The President annually awards 12 researchers who set new directions in social policy, neuroscience, biology, chemistry, bioengineering, mathematics, physics, and earth and environmental sciences. The National Science Foundation administers the Medals of Science for the White House. Ten of this year's 12 science medalists received NSF support for portions of their academic careers or research work.

The medals will be presented at an awards dinner on December 1 in Washington, D.C.

 

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