Daniel Batcheldor is an Anglo-American astrophysicist, a former professor at

Florida Institute of Technology The Florida Institute of Technology (Florida Tech or FIT) is a private research university in Melbourne, Florida. The university comprises four academic colleges: Engineering & Science, Aeronautics, Psychology & Liberal Arts, and Business. Appr ...

and Head of the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, and Director of the

Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope The Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope or JKT is a 1-metre optical telescope named for the Dutch astronomer Jacobus Kapteyn (1851-1922) of the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma in the Canary Islands, Sp ...

.Faculty profile of successor David Fleming
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Early life and education

In 2000, Batcheldor served as a student support astronomer at the

Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes or ING consists of three optical telescopes: the William Herschel Telescope, the Isaac Newton Telescope, and the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, operated by a collaboration between the UK Science and Technology Fac ...

with responsibilities for the

. He received a bachelor's degree in astronomy from the

University of Hertfordshire The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...

in 2001, and in 2004 he completed his Ph.D. at the same institution.

Career

In 2010, Batcheldor moved to a faculty position at

and became the Director of the Olin Observatory. In 2014, he became Head of the Department of Physics and Space Sciences at

, until his departure in July 2020.

Contributions

Astrophysics

Batcheldor's work includes the quantification of selection effects in the ''M''–''σ'' relation.,Batcheldor, D. (2010)
The ''M''-''σ'' Relation Derived from Sphere of Influence Arguments
''Astrophysical Journal Letters.'', 711, 108. the demonstration of low signal-to-noise data in published supermassive black holes mass estimates as well as comparative supermassive black holes mass measurements,Batcheldor, D.; Axon, D.; Valluri, M.; Mandalou, J.; Merritt, D. (2013)
O An STIS Atlas of Ca II Triplet Absorption Line Kinematics in Galactic Nuclei
''Astronomical Journal.'', 146, 67. and the discovery of a spatially offset

supermassive black hole A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical obj ...

in the galaxy

Messier 87 Messier 87 (also known as Virgo A or NGC 4486, generally abbreviated to M87) is a supergiant elliptical galaxy with several trillion stars in the constellation Virgo. One of the largest and most massive galaxies in the local uni ...

.Batcheldor, D.; Robinson, A.; Axon, D. J.; Perlman, E. S.; Merritt, D. (2010)
A Displaced Supermassive Black Hole in M87
''Astrophysical Journal Letters'', 717, 6.

Instrumentation

Batcheldor led the efforts to calibrate the

NICMOS The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) is a scientific instrument for infrared astronomy, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), operating from 1997 to 1999, and from 2002 to 2008. Images produced by NICMOS contain ...

instrument on board the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

to enable imaging polarimetry at the level of 1%.Batcheldor, D.; Schneider, G.; Hines, D. C.; Schmidt, G. D.; Axon, D. J.; Robinson, A.; Sparks, W.; Tadhunter, C. (2009)
High-Accuracy Near-infrared Imaging Polarimetry with NICMOS
''Pub. Ast. Soc. Pacific'', 121, 153. In 2012 he began efforts to bring back to operational status the 1.0-m

that had been taken out of service in 2003. This facility is now a remote observatory operated by the ''Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy'' (SARA). Batcheldor is the principal investigator for the SpectraCAM charge injection device payload that was tested on the

Nanoracks Nanoracks LLC is a private in-space services companywhich builds space hardware and in-space repurposing tools.The company also facilitates experiments and launches of CubeSats to Low Earth Orbit. Nanoracks's main office is in Houston, Tex ...

External Platform on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

Publications

Batcheldor is author of ''Astronomy Saves the World: Securing our Future Through Exploration and Education'' (, ) that advocates for the introduction of astronomy as part of the core K-12 curriculum.

References

External links

Official websiteDaniel Batcheldor at Florida Institute of Technology
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batcheldor, Daniel 21st-century American astronomers British astrophysicists 20th-century British astronomers Florida Institute of Technology faculty Rochester Institute of Technology faculty Living people Year of birth missing (living people)