Belinda Jane Wilkes is a Senior Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

, Massachusetts, US, and former director of the

Chandra Chandra ( sa, चन्द्र, Candra, shining' or 'moon), also known as Soma ( sa, सोम), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) a ...

X-ray Center.

Education and career

She was born in

Staffordshire, England Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

and grew up in Albrighton, Shropshire, attending

Wolverhampton Girls' High School (Game Before the Prize) , established = 1911 , closed = , type = Grammar school;academy , religious_affiliation = , president = , head_label = Headteacher , head = Trudi Young , r_head = , cha ...

before obtaining a BSc.(Hons) in Physics and Astronomy at the

University of St. Andrews (Aien aristeuein) , motto_lang = grc , mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best , established = , type = Public research university Ancient university , endowment ...

, Scotland followed by a PhD in Astronomy from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, England. In 1982 she moved to the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory as a NATO postdoctoral fellow and in 1984 to SAO's High Energy Astrophysics Division, part of the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian.

Research

Her research relates to multi-wavelength studies of quasars: galaxies containing super-massive black holes at their centers and the most luminous sources in the Universe. She is the author of over 165 papers in refereed science journals and has served on a wide range of professional committees as well as various user and advisory committees and review boards for space and ground-based telescopes. She is a Fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NG ...

and the

Cambridge Philosophical Society The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of la ...

, and a member of the International Astronomical Union.

Recognition

In 2018 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, her Alma Mater. In 2020 she was named a fellow of the American Physical Society "for significant contributions to the understanding of active galactic nuclei, including their emission mechanisms and evolutionary pathways, and for innovative leadership of the

Chandra X-ray Observatory The Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO), previously known as the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), is a Flagship-class space telescope launched aboard the during STS-93 by NASA on July 23, 1999. Chandra is sensitive to X-ray sources 1 ...

". In 2021 she was named a fellow of the American Astronomical Society "For dedicated leadership of the astronomical community as director of the Chandra X-ray Center", and was named to the 2021 class of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She was awarded the

Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize The Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize is awarded annually by the Institute of Physics to recognise leadership in the field of physics. It was established in 1966 and named in honour of Sir Richard T. Glazebrook, the first president of the Insti ...

for Leadership in Physics for her leadership of the Chandra X-Ray Centre by the

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physic ...

in 2023.

References

External links

Belinda Wilkes Home Page

Research Gate profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Belinda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people British astrophysicists Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Cambridge British women physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Education and career

Research

Recognition

See also

References

External links