Bohdan Paczyński | |
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| Born | (1940-02-08)8 February 1940 Vilnius, Lithuania |
| Died | 19 April 2007(2007-04-19) (aged 67) Princeton, New Jersey, United States |
| Alma mater | University of Warsaw |
| Known for | Paczyński-Wiita potential |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy |
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Bohdan Paczyński orBohdan Paczynski (8 February 1940 – 19 April 2007) was a Polishastronomer notable for his theories and work in the fields ofstellar evolution,accretion discs, andgamma ray bursts. He is the recipient of theEddington Medal (1987), theHenry Draper Medal (1997), theGold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1999), and theOrder of Polonia Restituta (2007).
Paczyński was born on 8 February 1940 inVilnius, Lithuania,[1] to a lawyer and a teacher ofPolish literature. In 1945 his familychose to leave for Poland and settled inKraków, and then in 1949 inWarsaw. At the age of 18, Paczyński published his first scientific article inActa Astronomica. Between 1959 and 1962 he studied astronomy at theUniversity of Warsaw. Two years later he received a doctorate under the tutelage ofStefan Piotrowski andWłodzimierz Zonn.
In 1962 Paczyński became a member of the Centre of Astronomy of thePolish Academy of Sciences, where he continued to work for nearly 20 years. In 1974 he received habilitation and in 1979 became a professor. Thanks to his works on theoretical astronomy, at the age of 36 he became the youngest member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.[2]
In 1981 Paczyński visited theUnited States, where he gave a series of lectures atCaltech to former interns at his Warsaw-based institute. After the introduction of theMartial Law in Poland he decided to stay abroad.[3] He was theLyman Spitzer Jr. Professor of Astrophysics atPrinceton University.[4]
Paczyński was the initiator oftime-domain sky surveys:Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE, led byAndrzej Udalski of Warsaw University Observatory)[5] andAll Sky Automated Survey (ASAS, created together withGrzegorz Pojmański).[6]
His new methods of discovering cosmic objects and measuring their mass by usinggravitational lenses gained him international recognition, and he is acknowledged for coining the termmicrolensing. He was also an early proponent of the idea thatgamma-ray bursts are at cosmological distances.
In 1997, Paczyński hypothesized thathypernovae were supernovae from rapidly spinning stars.[7]
His research concentrated onstellar evolution,gravitational lensing andgravitational microlensing,variable stars, gamma-ray bursts, andgalactic structure.[8]
In 1999, he became the first astronomer to receive all three major awards of theRoyal Astronomical Society,[9] by winning theGold Medal, having won theEddington Medal in 1987 and theGeorge Darwin Lectureship in 1995.[10]
He was honoured with the title ofdoctor honoris causa byWrocław University in Poland (on June 29, 2005) andNicolaus Copernicus University inToruń in Poland (on September 22, 2006).
In January 2006 he was awardedHenry Norris Russell Lectureship of theAmerican Astronomical Society, "for his highly original contributions to a wide variety of fields including advanced stellar evolution, the nature of gamma ray bursts, accretion in binary systems, gravitational lensing, and cosmology. His research has been distinguished by its creativity and breadth, as well as the stimulus it has provided to highly productive observational investigations".
He published over 200 scientific papers, which have been cited over 30,000 times by 2022, making him one of the most cited Polish scientists.[11]
He died ofbrain cancer on April 19, 2007, inPrinceton, New Jersey.[12]
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