William Nielsen Brandt (born June 10, 1970; also known as Niel Brandt) is the Verne M. Willaman Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics and a professor of physics at the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

. He is best known for his work on active galaxies, cosmological X-ray surveys, starburst galaxies, normal galaxies, and X-ray binaries.

Education

Brandt was born in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

, but mostly grew up in

Janesville, Wisconsin Janesville is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. It is the county seat and largest city in the county. It is a principal municipality of the Janesville, Wisconsin, Metropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison–Jane ...

. He attended Milton High School in

Milton, Wisconsin Milton is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,716 at the 2020 census. History The city was formed as a result of the 1967 merger of the villages of Milton and Milton Junction. In November of that year, ballot ...

, and

Phillips Exeter Academy (not for oneself) la, Finis Origine Pendet (The End Depends Upon the Beginning) gr, Χάριτι Θεοῦ (By the Grace of God) , location = 20 Main Street , city = Exeter, New Hampshire , zipcode ...

Exeter, New Hampshire Exeter is a town in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 16,049 at the 2020 census, up from 14,306 at the 2010 census. Exeter was the county seat until 1997, when county offices were moved to neighboring Brentwood. ...

. His undergraduate studies were done at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(B.S. 1992), where he lived in Blacker Hovse (sharing a room with

Ian Agol Ian Agol (born May 13, 1970) is an American mathematician who deals primarily with the topology of three-dimensional manifolds. Education and career Agol graduated with B.S. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 1992 and ...

) and was awarded the George Green Prize for Creative Scholarship. His graduate studies were done at the

Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge The Institute of Astronomy (IoA) is the largest of the three astronomy departments in the University of Cambridge, and one of the largest astronomy sites in the United Kingdom. Around 180 academics, postdocs, visitors and assistant staff work a ...

with

Andrew Fabian Andrew Christopher Fabian (born 20 February 1948) is a British astronomer and astrophysicist. He was Director of the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge from 2013 to 2018. He was a Royal Society Research Professor at the Institu ...

Career

From 1996 to 1997 Brandt held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian where he worked with colleagues including Martin Elvis and

Belinda Wilkes Belinda Jane Wilkes is a Senior Astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, and former director of the Chandra X-ray Center. Education and career She was born in Staffordshire, England and ...

. In 1997, he took up an assistant professor appointment at the

. He was promoted to associate professor in 2001, full professor in 2003, Distinguished Professor in 2010, and Verne M. Willaman Professor in 2014.

Research and teaching

Brandt's research focuses on observational studies of

supermassive black holes 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 ob ...

(SMBHs) and cosmological X-ray surveys. Specific objects investigated include actively accreting SMBHs (i.e.,

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not prod ...

: AGNs),

starburst galaxies A starburst galaxy is one undergoing an exceptionally high rate of star formation, as compared to the long-term average rate of star formation in the galaxy or the star formation rate observed in most other galaxies. For example, the star formatio ...

, and normal galaxies. His work utilizes data from facilities at the forefront of astrophysical discovery, including 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 ...

XMM-Newton ''XMM-Newton'', also known as the High Throughput X-ray Spectroscopy Mission and the X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission, is an X-ray space observatory launched by the European Space Agency in December 1999 on an Ariane 5 rocket. It is the second cornerst ...

NuSTAR NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, also named Explorer 93 and SMEX-11) is a NASA space-based X-ray telescope that uses a conical approximation to a Wolter telescope to focus high energy X-rays from astrophysical sources, especiall ...

, and the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

. He is also involved with upcoming projects including the

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, previously referred to as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomical observatory currently under construction in Chile. Its main task will be carrying out a synoptic astronomical survey, the Le ...

, the

Advanced Telescope for High Energy Astrophysics Advanced Telescope for High-ENergy Astrophysics (''Athena'') is an X-ray observatory mission selected by European Space Agency (ESA) within its Cosmic Vision program to address the Hot and Energetic Universe scientific theme. ''Athena'' will ...

(ATHENA), and new X-ray missions. In his cosmological X-ray surveys work, Brandt has been a leader in obtaining the most-sensitive X-ray surveys to date, including the Chandra Deep Field-North and the Chandra Deep Field-South. These have been used to explore the demography, physics, and ecology of typical growing SMBHs over most of cosmic history. They have also allowed the study of X-ray source populations in starburst and normal galaxies out to cosmological distances. In his general AGN studies, he has investigated AGN winds, the X-ray properties of the first quasars, and extreme AGN populations (e.g., Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 galaxies and weak-line quasars). He has also worked on investigations of the

cosmic microwave background radiation In Big Bang cosmology the cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR) is electromagnetic radiation that is a remnant from an early stage of the universe, also known as "relic radiation". The CMB is faint cosmic background radiation filling all spac ...

and the effects of neutron-star and black-hole natal kicks. Brandt is an author of more than 500 research papers on these subjects. Brandt leads a small research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. Many of them, after developing their skills via their research projects, have gone on to win professorial and permanent staff positions as well as distinguished fellowships and scholarships, becoming new leaders around the world in astrophysics. Brandt also regularly teaches courses on high-energy astrophysics, bremsstrahlung, black holes, and active galaxies.

Selected awards

* Caltech George Green Prize for Creative Scholarship, 1992 * NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 1994–1996 *

Sloan Fellowship The Sloan Research Fellowships are awarded annually by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation since 1955 to "provide support and recognition to early-career scientists and scholars". This program is one of the oldest of its kind in the United States. ...

, 1999–2004 * NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2000–2005 *

Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy The Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young (less than age 36) astronomer for outstanding achievement in observational astronomical research. The prize is named after Newton Lacy Pi ...

, 2004 * Fellow of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

, 2009 *

Bruno Rossi Prize The Bruno Rossi Prize is awarded annually by the High Energy Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work". Named after a ...

, 2016 * Elected a Legacy Fellow 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 ...

, 2020

References

External links

Personal WWW page at the Pennsylvania State UniversityNewton Lacy Pierce Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Niel 1970 births Living people 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American astronomers People from Janesville, Wisconsin Phillips Exeter Academy alumni California Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University staff Pennsylvania State University faculty Fellows of the American Astronomical Society