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Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award

Recent News

Radio Observations of Compact Symmetric Objects Shed New Light on Black Hole Phenomenon

Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) harbor supermassive black holes that emit powerful jets traveling at near-light speeds in opposite directions. However, unlike their counterparts in other galaxies, these jets remain compact, not extending out to great distances as expected. For decades, scientists presumed that CSOs were youthful entities, with their jets destined to expand over time. New findings, published in three papers in The Astrophysical Journal, challenge this notion.

NRAO and SpaceX Coordinate to Protect Radio Astronomy

Supported by the National Science Foundation, NRAO and SpaceX are developing a system called Operational Data Sharing (ODS) that provides the current status (position in the sky and observing frequency) of two of its telescopes: the VLA in New Mexico and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia.

Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Award

The Robert L. Brown Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award is administered by Associated Universities Inc. (AUI) and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) on behalf of Bob Brown’s friends and family to honor Bob’s life and career. The Award is given each year to a recent recipient of a doctoral degree from any recognized degree granting institution in the United States, and which is substantially based on new observational data obtained at any NRAO facility and considered to be of an exceptionally high scientific standard.

Award

The Award is available to degree recipients of any nationality and consists of $1000, a framed certificate, and an invitation to give a colloquium at the NRAO.

Application Guidelines

To be eligible, the applicant must have successfully defended the thesis during the calendar year of the Award. The deadline for receipt of applications and supporting materials for any given calendar year Award is January 31 of the following year.

Applicants should send an e-­mail describing their dissertation, the date of their successful thesis defense, the date of the degree award, and the name and contact information of the primary thesis supervisor to [email protected]. A copy of the thesis should be sent by e-­mail to the same address or made available via a link given in the letter. Published papers or papers in press, or portions thereof, based substantially on the dissertation should accompany the application. Verification of the successful thesis defense and statement that the applicant has successfully completed all university requirements for the PhD should be sent directly by the appropriate university authority to [email protected].

Selection

The winning applicant will be selected by a committee appointed by the NRAO Director. If, in the opinion of the committee, in any given year none of the theses are sufficiently meritorious, the award will not be given in that year.

All questions should be addressed to [email protected].

Recent News

Radio Observations of Compact Symmetric Objects Shed New Light on Black Hole Phenomenon

Compact Symmetric Objects (CSOs) harbor supermassive black holes that emit powerful jets traveling at near-light speeds in opposite directions. However, unlike their counterparts in other galaxies, these jets remain compact, not extending out to great distances as expected. For decades, scientists presumed that CSOs were youthful entities, with their jets destined to expand over time. New findings, published in three papers in The Astrophysical Journal, challenge this notion.

NRAO and SpaceX Coordinate to Protect Radio Astronomy

Supported by the National Science Foundation, NRAO and SpaceX are developing a system called Operational Data Sharing (ODS) that provides the current status (position in the sky and observing frequency) of two of its telescopes: the VLA in New Mexico and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia.