This year, the 2024 Marc Aaronson Prize recognizes Northwestern University professor Wen-fai Fong for her pioneering, multi-wavelength observations characterizing fast transients and the galaxy environments that host them. Fong studies some of the Universe’s most cataclysmic events, including gravitational waves that are launched when neutron stars and black holes merge, and gamma-ray bursts –the most powerful cosmic explosions since the Big Bang.
The prize honors the legacy of Marc Aaronson, a Steward Observatory astronomer whose research in the 1980s advanced our understanding of the age and size of the Universe. Aaronson came to Steward Observatory as a postdoc after receiving his PhD degree from Harvard in 1977 and became an Associate Professor in 1983. His astronomical research focused on many of the most important problems of observational cosmology: the cosmic distance scale, the age of the Universe, the large-scale motion of matter, and the distribution of invisible mass in the Universe. Aaronson made important contributions to our understanding of stellar populations in the Large Magellanic Cloud. His research, says Steward Observatory Deputy Director and Astronomer Dennis Zaritsky, was “audacious.”
After Aaronson was tragically killed in an accident on Kitt Peak in 1987, Steward Observatory worked with his widow to establish a prize to remember Marc’s “joy in astronomy and the way he was active and interested and creative and all the things he did,” says Zartisky. The prize seeks to honor early-career astronomers who embody that same spirit and spark for innovation. Three winners of the Marc Aaronson Prize have gone on to win the Nobel Prize.
Fong, this year’s winner, spent time at Steward Observatory as a postdoc, and now studies explosive gamma-ray bursts at Northwestern.
“I consider my time as a postdoctoral fellow at Steward Observatory pivotal to my career,” said Prof Fong. “The department created an atmosphere which cultivated my independent identity as a scientist. During that time I learned of Dr. Aaronson, his scientific legacy and creative spirit. It is incredibly meaningful for me to receive this award, and be able to return to Steward Observatory to meet Dr. Aaronson’s family, to thank all of the mentors who helped solidify my confidence, and to present the work we have been able to do at Northwestern.”
This is the first Marc Aaronson Prize awarded since 2019, and the prize has grown since then: the winner now receives a $5000 prize to celebrate and advance their work. Fong will visit Steward Observatory in September to give a colloquium and a public science talk for Steward’s Public Evening Lecture series. It is a rich opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas among astronomers at the University of Arizona and NOIRLab.
Read the full article from the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory.