Fiona A. Harrison | |
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.jpg) Harrison speaks at the 2016World Economic Forum | |
| Born | |
| Nationality | American |
| Education | Dartmouth College UC Berkeley |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
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Fiona A. Harrison is theKent and Joyce Kresa Leadership Chair of the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy atCaltech,Harold A. Rosen Professor of Physics at Caltech and the Principal Investigator for NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. She won theHans A. Bethe Prize in 2020 for her work onNuSTAR.[1][2]
Harrison was born inSanta Monica, California but moved toBoulder, Colorado, at age three. She completed her undergraduate degree fromDartmouth College in 1985 with high honors in physics, and went toU.C. Berkeley for graduate studies, completing a PhD in 1993. She then went toCaltech as a Millikan Fellow, joining the faculty as an Assistant Professor of Physics in 1995. She became a full professor in 2005 and was appointed as the Benjamin M. Rosen Professor of Physics in 2013.
Harrison's research combines the development of new instrumentation with observational work focused on high energy observations ofblack holes,neutron stars,gamma-ray bursts andsupernova remnants. As the Principal Investigator forNuSTAR, the first focusing telescope in orbit operating in the high energy part of theX-ray spectrum (3 – 79 keV), she led an international team to propose, develop and launch the mission. The focal plane detectors and instrument electronics were built in Harrison's labs atCaltech. She led the science team executing the two-year baseline mission, which extended from August 2012 – August 2014.
Harrison's observational research showed that the afterglows of gamma-ray bursts exhibit breaks in their decay rate due to collimation of the ejecta.[3] Scientific highlights from the NuSTAR mission include mapping the radioactive debris in theCassieopeia A supernova remnant to constrain the core collapse explosion mechanism,[4][5] measurement of the spin of supermassive[6] and stellar mass[7]black holes, the discovery of amagnetar in theGalactic Center,[8] and the discovery of an ultra luminouspulsar.[9][10]
Harrison was awarded thePresidential Early Career award by President Clinton in 2000,[11] was named one of America's best leaders by U.S. News and the Kennedy School of Government, was awarded aNASA Outstanding Public Leadership medal in 2013,[12] and theBruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society in 2015.[13] She is a fellow of theAmerican Physical Society,[14] theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary fellow of theRoyal Astronomical Society, and honorary degree Doctor Technices Hornoris Causa from theDanish Technical University, and a member of theNational Academy of Sciences.
She was elected a Legacy Fellow of theAmerican Astronomical Society in 2020.[15]
She was awarded the Mohler Prize from the University of Michigan in 2022.[16]
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