Gillian R. Knapp

Gillian Knapp is a professor of astronomical sciences at Princeton University. She is a faculty fellow at Whitman College.[1] She has been involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey[2] and she is an active member of the International Astronomical Union.[3]

Gillian R. Knapp
Born
United Kingdom
Alma mater
Scientific career
FieldsAstronomy
Institutions

Education

Gillian Knapp attended the University of Edinburgh and received her B.Sc. in physics in 1966.[4] Following her interest in astronomy, she moved to the US to continue her study in the University of Maryland where she got Ph.D. in astronomy in 1971.[4] After a short period of teaching in Maryland, Knapp moved to the West coast in 1974 and continued her scientific career as a research fellow in the California Institute of technology.[4]

Scientific career

In the California Institute of technology, Gillian Knapp was promoted to a senior research fellow in 1976 and became a staff member of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory the same year.[4]

In 1980 Knapp moved to Princeton to work as a researcher in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences of Princeton University and became an Associate Professor in 1984.[5] In the 1980s and early 1990s, Dr. Knapp conducted pioneering studies using radio telescopes to study the mass loss that occurs near the end of the life of Asymptotic Giant Branch stars and related objects.[6] Starting 1990, she worked on the construction of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and her contribution included the discovery and characterization of brown dwarfs, white dwarf stars and high-velocity stars.[7] Her scientific career was successfully developed over the years in Princeton University, where she received an Emerita Professor status in 2014.[8]

Gillian Knapp is a highly cited astronomer[9] and a member of American Astronomical Society, Royal Astronomical Society, International Union of Radio Science, International Astronomical Union.[8]

Honors and awards

In 1983 the University of Texas at Austin established the Beatrice Tinsley Centennial Visiting Professorship in Astronomy.[10] Gillian Knapp was the first recipient of the professorship (Fall 1985).[11]

Knapp was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the University of Maryland in 2003.[12]

Knapp received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2018, for her work bringing college level course material to prison inmates as part of the Prison Teaching Initiative, which she co-founded in 2005 along with other Princeton astrophysicists Mark Krumholz and Jenny Greene.[13]

Personal life

She is married to astronomer James Gunn. They have two children.

References
  1. "Princeton". www.princeton.edu. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  2. Solontoi, Michael; Ivezić, Željko; Jurić, Mario; Becker, Andrew C.; Jones, Lynne; West, Andrew A.; Kent, Steve; Lupton, Robert H.; Claire, Mark; Knapp, Gillian R.; Quinn, Tom; Gunn, James E.; Schneider, Donald P. (2012). "Ensemble properties of comets in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey". Icarus. 218 (1): 571–584. arXiv:1202.3999. Bibcode:2012Icar..218..571S. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2011.10.008. Archived from the original on 2014-10-28. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
  3. "International Astronomical Union". www.iau.org. Retrieved 27 October 2014.
  4. Hutchings, Jr (1978). "Engineering and Science, Volume 42:2, November-December 1978". Engineering and Science. Retrieved 2020-03-19.
  5. Eckstein, Nathan (2013-11-21). "Through the Glass Ceiling, Seeing Stars". Nassau Weekly. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  6. Knapp, G.R.; Morris, M. (May 1985). "Mass Loss from Evolved Stars. III. Mass Loss Rates for 50 Stars from CO J = 1--0 Observations". The Astrophysical Journal. 292: 640–669. doi:10.1086/163197. Retrieved 4 December 2020.
  7. "Gillian R. Knapp | Dean of the Faculty". dof.princeton.edu. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  8. "Eight faculty members transfer to emeritus status". Princeton University. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  9. "Gillian Knapp - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  10. says, Online Articles That May Be of Interest to WIAReport Readers : Women In Academia Report. "This Astronomer Had to Make the Hardest Career Choice". AAUW: Empowering Women Since 1881. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  11. New Zealand Update. New Zealand Embassy. 1980.
  12. "UMD Astronomy: Alumnus of the Year Award". www.astro.umd.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-24.
  13. "PAESMEM » Awardee Profile". paesmem.net. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
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