David Robert Ciardi (born 17 July 1969) is an American

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, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

. He received a bachelor's degree in physics and astronomy from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

in 1991, and a Ph.D. in physics from the

University of Wyoming The University of Wyoming (UW) is a public land-grant research university in Laramie, Wyoming. It was founded in March 1886, four years before the territory was admitted as the 44th state, and opened in September 1887. The University of Wyoming ...

in 1997.

Career

Ciardi has published refereed journal articles across a wide range of topics, including exoplanets, star formation, interstellar dust, molecular clouds, and evolved stars. His observations of

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

using long-baseline interferometry with the

Palomar Testbed Interferometer The Palomar Testbed Interferometer (PTI) was a near infrared, long-baseline stellar interferometer located at Palomar Observatory in north San Diego County, California, United States. It was built by Caltech and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and ...

were the first to spatially resolve the debris disk around this star and to show that dust was present within 1 AU of the star - akin to the interplanetary dust in the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization 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 ...

that produces the

zodiacal light The zodiacal light (also called false dawn when seen before sunrise) is a faint glow of diffuse sunlight scattered by interplanetary dust. Brighter around the Sun, it appears in a particularly dark night sky to extend from the Sun's direction ...

. This work led to the discovery of dust in the inner regions around other stars and leading to the discovery of a gap between the inner dust ring and the outer dust ring in many systems - the existence of which is still not understood. Ciardi is a member of the Kepler Science Team and using data from the

Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...

mission, Ciardi has published landmark works on the fundamental nature of stellar variability and the relative sizes of planets in multi-planet systems and has contributed to more than 250 exoplanet discovery papers, including many of the Kepler Mission discoveries and being the principal investigator of the Palomar Transient Factory Orion Transit Survey and co-discoverer of the first transiting planet around a newly formed

T Tauri T Tauri is a variable star in the constellation Taurus, the prototype of the T Tauri stars. It was discovered in October 1852 by John Russell Hind. T Tauri appears from Earth amongst the Hyades cluster, not far from ε Tauri, but i ...

star in the 3-million-year-old star cluster surrounding 25 Orionis. Ciardi completed his PhD at the University of Wyoming in 1997, and remained in Laramie for another year as a post-doctoral fellow. He left Wyoming to become a post-doc at the University of Florida, ostensibly to work on the

Wide Field Infrared Explorer Wide-field Infrared Explorer (WIRE, also Explorer 75 and SMEX-5) was a NASA satellite launched on 5 March 1999, on the Pegasus XL launch vehicle into polar orbit between above the surface of Earth. WIRE was intended to be a four-month infrared ...

(WIRE) mission. The unfortunate failure of WIRE's main telescope immediately following launch sidetracked that research path; however, Ciardi remained at Florida and became a staff member with the infrared instrumentation group where he worked on an array of infrared instruments, including T-ReCS for the 8m telescope Gemini South and CanariCam for the 10m

Gran Telescopio Canarias The Gran Telescopio Canarias (GranTeCan or GTC) is a reflecting telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on the island of La Palma, in the Canaries, Spain. It is the world's largest single-aperture optical telescope. Constr ...

. In 2002, Ciardi took a staff astronomer position at the

NASA Exoplanet Science Institute The NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI) is part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) and is on the campus of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, CA. NExScI was formerly known as the Michelson Sc ...

; he is currently the NExScI Chief Scientist, and is a Member of the Professional Staff at

Caltech 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 ...

Awards and honors

In 2016, Ciardi was awarded the

NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal The NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (abbreviated ESAM) was established by NASA on September 15, 1961, when the original ESM was divided into three separate awards. Under the current guidelines, the ESAM is awarded for unusually sign ...

for his work on Kepler and his contributions to the confirmation of Kepler's exoplanets which have led to the characterization of planets ranging in size from Jupiters to Earths. The

is awarded to individuals for unusually significant scientific contributions toward achievement of aeronautical or space exploration goals. Asteroid 26312 Ciardi was named in his honor. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 18 May 2019 ().

Academic lineage

The following is the historic path of Ciardi's advisors - otherwise known as his academic lineage - spanning two centuries of scientific achievement.

References

External links

Caltech's page for Dr. Ciardi
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ciardi, David American astronomers Boston University College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Wyoming alumni Living people 1969 births