Andrew Lawrence (astronomer)

Andrew Lawrence FRSE is a British astrophysicist (born 23 April 1954 [1]). He is Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh based at the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.[2]

Andrew Lawrence

FRSE
Andy Lawrence (center) with Roger Davies (left) and Stephen Warren (right) in 2012
Born (1954-04-23) 23 April 1954
Margate, England
EducationChatham House Grammar School
Known forQuasars
AwardsFellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1997), Group Award of the Royal Astronomical Society (2012)
Scientific career
FieldsAstrophysics
InstitutionsUniversity of Edinburgh
Doctoral advisorKen Pounds
Websiteandyxlastro.me

Education and Career

Lawrence was born 23 April 1954 in Margate, Kent, to Jack Lawrence and Louisa Lawrence (née Sandison). He attended Chatham House Grammar School,[3] and then studied Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh.[4] He undertook postgraduate research at the Department of Physics,[5] University of Leicester, supervised by Ken Pounds. He completed his PhD in 1980, with a doctoral thesis entitled “X-ray observations of Active Galaxies”.[6] He then worked at the Centre for Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the Royal Greenwich Observatory, during its incarnation at Herstmonceux, East Sussex; the School of Mathematical Sciences and then the Department of Physics, Queen Mary University of London; and in 1994 was appointed to the Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Edinburgh. In 2008-9 he had a sabbatical year at the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at Stanford University.

Research

Lawrence’s primary research has been in the field of Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei, but he has also worked extensively in Survey Astronomy, creating the Wide Field Astronomy Unit[7] in 1999. He was the Principal Investigator for the UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS), which received the Group Award of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2012.[8] He is one of the leaders of the global Virtual Observatory initiative [9] and a founder and past chair of the International Virtual Observatory Alliance.

Publications

As of 2019, Lawrence had published over 300 scientific publications and had an h-index of 73. He has also published three books: Losing The Sky[10] about sky pollution by satellites, and two academic textbooks, Probability in Physics,[11] and Astronomical Measurement,[12] both with Springer. He has also published a short historical/popular booklet on the life and achievements of Charles Piazzi Smyth, the second Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

Outreach and Arts

Lawrence teaches on the Massive open online course (MOOC) at Coursera on AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery.[13] He has been involved in a number of Arts-science collaborations, notably with New York composer Matt Giannotti,[14] and with a Spanish film maker on the documentary A Residence Above The Clouds.[15]

References
  1. Lawrence, Prof. Andrew. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U23943. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Retrieved 23 April 2021. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  2. Lawrence, Andy (18 August 2020). "School of Physics and Astronomy". The University of Edinburgh. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  3. "Welcome - Chatham & Clarendon Grammar School - CCGS". www.ccgrammarschool.co.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  4. "Andy Lawrence CV". Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  5. "School of Physics and Astronomy". le.ac.uk. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  6. "X-ray observations of active galaxies". ethos.bl.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  7. "Wide-Field Astronomy Unit". Institute for Astronomy. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  8. "RAS Group award winners" (PDF). ras.ac.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  9. ""The Management, Storage and Utilization of Astronomical Data in the 21st Century: A Discussion Paper for the OECD Global Science Forum", P.Quinn, A.Lawrence, and R.Hanisch, 2011" (PDF). ivoa.net. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  10. "Losing The Sky". Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  11. Probability in Physics. Undergraduate Lecture Notes in Physics. 2019. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04544-9. ISBN 978-3-030-04542-5. Retrieved 6 April 2023 – via link.springer.com.
  12. Lawrence, Andy (2014). Astronomical Measurement. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-39835-3. ISBN 978-3-642-39834-6. Retrieved 6 April 2023 – via link.springer.com.
  13. "AstroTech: The Science and Technology behind Astronomical Discovery". coursera.org.
  14. "Home - Matt Giannotti". 16 October 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2023.
  15. "Chip Taylor Communications". www.chiptaylor.com. Retrieved 6 April 2023.

Media related to Andrew Lawrence (astronomer) at Wikimedia Commons

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.