Nicholas B. Suntzeff | |
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 Houston, Texas 2009 | |
| Born | Nicholas Boris Suntzeff (1952-11-22)November 22, 1952 (age 72) San Francisco, California, United States |
| Alma mater | Stanford University University of California at Santa Cruz Lick Observatory |
| Known for | Observational cosmology based on supernovae |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy Cosmology |
| Institutions | Texas A&M University, United States Department of State |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert Kraft |
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| Physical cosmology |
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Nicholas Boris Suntzeff[1] (born November 22, 1952,San Francisco) is an American astronomer and cosmologist. He is a universitydistinguished professor and holds theMitchell/Heep/Munnerlyn Chair of Observational Astronomy in the Department of Physics & Astronomy atTexas A&M University where he is director of the Astronomy Program. He is an observationalastronomer specializing incosmology,supernovae,stellar populations, and astronomical instrumentation. WithBrian Schmidt he founded theHigh-z Supernova Search Team, which was honored with theNobel Prize in Physics in 2011 to Schmidt andAdam Riess.
Suntzeff graduated fromNeil Cummins Elementary School inCorte Madera, California andRedwood High School inLarkspur, California. He received hisB.S. with distinction inmathematics fromStanford University in 1974 and hisPh.D. inastronomy &astrophysics from theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz andLick Observatory in 1980. While undergraduates at Stanford University, Suntzeff and engineering student Michael Kast built the Stanford Student Observatory.[2][3]
After graduating in 1980, he worked as apostdoctoral research associate with ProfessorGeorge Wallerstein in the Department of Astronomy atUniversity of Washington. From 1982 to 1986 he was a Carnegie/Las Campanas Fellow at theMount Wilson &Las Campanas Observatories, now called the Observatories of theCarnegie Institution for Science.
After moving to Chile in 1986, Suntzeff working withMark M. Phillips andMario Hamuy atCTIO used the newly developed cryogenicCCD cameras to produce the first modernlight curve of aType Ia supernova.[4] The fundamental calibration for distances toType Ia supernovae was invented by theCalán/Tololo Supernova Survey,[5][6] founded byMario Hamuy, Jose Maza,Mark M. Phillips, and Suntzeff. The Survey, formed after discussions at the Santa Cruz meeting on supernovae[7] and the encouragement byAllan R. Sandage to use Type Ia supernovae to measure theHubble constant H0 and thedeceleration parameter q0, ran from 1990 to 1995, and provided the pioneering method to measure precision distances to external galaxies,[8] leading to a precise value of the Hubble constant.[9][10]
Continuing the work of the Calán/Tololo Survey, Suntzeff withBrian P. Schmidt co-founded theHigh-Z Supernova Search Team in 1994 that used observations of extragalacticsupernovae to discover theaccelerating universe.[11][12] Thisuniversal acceleration implies the existence ofdark energy consistent with thecosmological constant ofAlbert Einstein's theory ofGeneral Relativity, and was voted the top science breakthrough of 1998 byScience magazine.[13]
Prior to 2006, he was the associate director of science at the USNational Optical Astronomy Observatory, and astronomer atCerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. In 2007, he was elected councilor of theAmerican Astronomical Society, and in 2010, he was elected vice president of the same society. He has been awarded a 2010 Jefferson Senior Science Fellowship[14] of theNational Academy of Sciences to work at theUS Department of State where he is a Humanitarian Affairs Officer in the Bureau of Human Rights of theOffice of International Organization Affairs. He is also anadjunct professor in the Department of Astronomy at theUniversity of Texas at Austin. He becameemeritus on February 2024.
TheAmerican Physics Society citation in 2017 recognized Suntzeff for"... essential contributions and leadership in observational cosmology and astrophysics; investigations into the phenomenology of Type Ia supernovae which laid the groundwork for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe; and for cofounding one of the two teams that made this discovery."[15]
In announcing his award as a 2023American Astronomical Society Fellow, he was cited "For his transformational leadership in the foundation of supernova cosmology, the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe, and precision measurements of the Hubble–Lemaître flow; for his service to the national and international astronomical communities; for considerable efforts on behalf of human rights, especially the LGBTQ community, both within astronomy and globally; and for establishing the astronomy program at Texas A&M University."[16]
He is a native ofSan Francisco and grew up inCorte Madera, California. He is the paternal grandson of Matvei Andrianovich Evdokimov (1887–1920) (Russian: Матвей Андрианович Евдокимов), one of the principal private arms manufacturers inczarist Russia, located inIzhevsk.[33] The Evdokimov factory in Izhevsk began in the 1860s by Andrian Nikandrovich Evdokimov (1844–1917 (Russian: Андриан Никандрович Евдокимов), and by 1890, was manufacturingMosin–Nagant and Berdan rifles.[33][34] They continued production until theRussian Civil War in 1917. These rifles were used during the Revolution and World War I,[35] and were retooled for use during World War II, especially by theFinnish Army.
Although not supporters of the White cause, for their safety the family of Matvei fled east withAdmiral Kolchak, theWhite Army, and theCzech Legion when the Whites capturedPerm in 1918.[36] Matvei died at Manchurian Station (Manzhouli) nearChita. His only child, Nicholai Matveevich Evdiokimov (1918–1995) (Russian: Николай Матвеевич Евдокимов) continued with Matvei's wife Zoya Vasilevna Suntzeva (Russian: Зоя Васильевна Сунцевa) (1897–1976), with the Suntzeff family toHarbin China and then to the San Francisco in 1928. Nicholai assumed the last name of his mother and immigrated into the US as Nicholas Matveevich Suntzeff (Russian: Николай Матвеевич Сунцев). The Suntzeff family, prominent merchants from theUral region, came fromMotovilikha (now part ofPerm, Russia) and have ancestry in theUdmurt people. A bridge "Сунцев мост" in Motovilikha was named after the family store nearby.[37]
Suntzeff is mentioned in theAlan Alda memoir,Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: and Other Things I've Learned.[38]
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