Alumni Focus: Alex Filippenko
Article reprinted from Fall 2007's Inside Physics [PDF].
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From playing with magnets in sandboxes as a child to exploring the general field of science to conducting research in astronomy and cosmology, UCSB alumnus Alex Filippenko is a world-renowned astronomer and prize-winning professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Filippenko comes from a UC family; his parents were attending Berkeley when he was born, and moved to the Santa Barbara/Goleta area when Alex was six.
His connection to UCSB started while still in high school – he won the College of Creative Studies (CCS) “Prize Exam” in chemistry as a senior and continued those studies at UCSB, beginning as a CCS Chemistry major. It was not a big leap to physics. “During my freshman year at UCSB, I realized that I was really most interested in the physical aspects of chemistry, and especially in physics,” he says. “Also, my interest in astronomy, which had been just a hobby during high school, was steadily growing.”
It was all work and little play for Filippenko. “I took about twice the normal load of units while I was an undergraduate,” he says. “Though this gave me great breadth, I now realize that I should have taken fewer classes so as to learn the material more deeply. Also, this would have given me some free time; I had essentially no social life.”
Alex’s hard work did not go unnoticed. UCSB Physics professor Stanton Peale (now emeritus and research professor, pictured above with Filippenko at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History in May 2007) took note of the young Filippenko. He was “willing to work very hard,” says Peale. “Each term he would take about 30 quarter units, and often end up with 6 hard physics problem sets due each week. He could go a week with almost no sleep and still function. Yet he maintained a GPA greater than 4.0 from the large fraction of A+ grades he earned.”
Filippenko was greatly inspired by Peale to become an astrophysicist. A few days prior to Voyager 1’s historic encounter with Jupiter, Peale, with coauthors Patrick Cassen and Ray Reynolds, published a paper suggesting rampant volcanism on the surface of Jupiter’s moon, Io. Their prediction was confirmed in March of 1979 when Voyager 1’s probe revealed active volcanoes on Io’s surface. “This prediction and confirmation had a profound effect on me,” says Filippenko. “It showed me (vicariously) not only the thrill of discovery, but also the power of physics and logical reasoning.”
After obtaining his BA in Physics (through CCS) at UCSB and PhD in Astronomy at CalTech, Filippenko returned to UC Berkeley, this time as a faculty member.
“My primary areas of research are supernovae, active galaxies, black holes, gamma-ray bursts, and observational cosmology. I am especially interested in using Type Ia supernovae to determine the expansion history of the universe,” he says. His research “found evidence that the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up, rather than slowing down as had been expected.” This discovery, which suggests that space is filled with so-called “dark energy,” was voted as the top “Science Breakthrough of 1998” by the editors of Science magazine. Both research teams with which Fillipenko was affiliated were recognized with the prestigious 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize.
His approachable teaching style and dedication to his students has continued to garner attention. He has won several major awards for distinguished teaching and mentoring at UC Berkeley. Informal student polls have rated him as the “Best Professor” on campus five times. In 2006, he was selected as the Carnegie/CASE Doctoral and Research Universities National Professor of the Year.
“I marvel at how Alex can make relatively complicated material accessible to non-science majors and, for that matter to the lay public,” says Peale. Filippenko’s accessible style has made him a popular speaker. He has been featured on several science documentaries, and has given well over 400 popular talks. In May 2007, Filippenko was invited to present the annual Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network Science public lecture at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History; he spoke on “Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe” (see sidebar, this page).
Always busy, Filippenko continues his research at Berkeley. His team has constructed the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope, a 0.76-meter robotic telescope that “observes automatically while we sleep; it is used primarily to discover new supernovae and to monitor variable or ephemeral objects.”
And what does the future hold? “I’ll continue teaching and conducting research. I also plan to write at least one popular-level book on my studies of supernovae and the accelerating expansion of the universe.”
Las Cumbres Observatory Lectures
In collaboration with the UCSB Department of Physics and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH), the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) has established the annual Las Cumbres Observatory Astrophysics Lecture, bringing internationally renowned astronomers from around the world to Santa Barbara. This annual lecture series provides an opportunity for community members, students and scientists in Santa Barbara to interact with these high-profile scientists from around the world and learn about the frontiers of the exciting fields of astrophysics and cosmology.
The second lecture, in May 2007, featured Dr. Filippenko on “Dark Energy and the Runaway Universe.”
LCOGT Lecture Series website: physics.ucsb.edu/newsevents/lco.html
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