Brett James Gladman (born April 19, 1966)
/ref> is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

and a full professor at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

's Department of Physics and Astronomy in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He holds the

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in planetary astronomy. He does both theoretical work (large-scale numerical simulations of planetary dynamics) and observational optical astronomy (being a discoverer of many planetary moons and minor planets).

Career

Gladman is best known for his work in dynamical astronomy in the Solar System. He has studied the transport of meteorites between planets, the delivery of meteoroids from the main asteroid belt, and the possibility of the transport of life via this mechanism, known as panspermia. He also studies planet formation, especially the puzzle of how the giant planets came to be. He is discoverer or co-discoverer of many astronomical bodies in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

, asteroids, Kuiper Belt comets, and many moons of the giant planets: *

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

: Caliban,

Sycorax Sycorax is an unseen character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Tempest'' (1611). She is a vicious and powerful witch and the mother of Caliban (character), Caliban, one of the few native inhabitants of the island on which Prospero, the he ...

Prospero Prospero ( ) is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare's play '' The Tempest''. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Antonio, had put him (with his three-year-old daughter, Miranda) to sea ...

, Setebos, Stephano, and Ferdinand *

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

: A dozen satellites in several groups, each named after a theme of Canadian Inuit gods, French deities, and Norse gods *

Neptune Neptune is the eighth planet from the Sun and the farthest known planet in the Solar System. It is the fourth-largest planet in the Solar System by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. It is 17 times ...

: The satellite Neso *

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but ...

: Discovery and co-discovery of 6 moons Gladman is a member of the Canada–France Ecliptic Plane Survey (CFEPS), and the

Outer Solar System Origins Survey The Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) is an astronomical survey and observing program aimed at discovering and tracking trans-Neptunian objects located in the outermost regions of the Solar System beyond the orbit of Neptune. OSSOS is des ...

(OSSOS) which has detected and tracked the world's largest sample of well-understood Kuiper belt comets, including unusual objects like ("Buffy") and ("Drac"), the first trans-Neptunian object on a retrograde orbit around the Sun.

Honors and awards

Gladman was awarded the H. C. Urey Prize by the Division of Planetary Sciences of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

in 2002. The main-belt asteroid

7638 Gladman 7638 Gladman, provisional designation , is a stony background asteroid from the central region of the asteroid belt, approximately in diameter. It was discovered on 26 October 1984, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa S ...

is named in his honor. During 2008–2011 he served as member and chair of the Science Advisory Council of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He was awarded a

Killam Research Fellowship Killam is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Clements Killam (1849–1908), Canadian lawyer * Amasa Emerson Killam (1834–1922), Canadian politician * Dorothy J. Killam (1900–1965), Canadian philanthropist * Eva King ...

in 2015.

List of discovered minor planets

Partial listing only below; discoveries number in the many hundreds of asteroids and Kuiper Belt objects.

References

External links

Brett Gladman at the Astronomy group
of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, UBC and Institute of Planetary Science {{DEFAULTSORT:Gladman, Brett 1966 births 21st-century Canadian astronomers Canada Research Chairs Discoverers of minor planets Discoverers of moons Discoverers of trans-Neptunian objects * Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Planetary scientists University of British Columbia faculty

Career

Honors and awards

List of discovered minor planets

See also

References

External links