Dale A. Frail is a Canadian

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

working at the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radio a ...

(NRAO) in Socorro,

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

Early life

He was born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, spent much of his childhood in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, and his professional career has been based in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Career

Frail received his university education in Canada: first an undergraduate degree in

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

from

Acadia University Acadia University is a public, predominantly undergraduate university located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada, with some graduate programs at the master's level and one at the doctoral level. The enabling legislation consists of the Acadi ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, followed by MSc and PhD degrees in

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. In 1989 he moved to the United States as an

NSERC The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada, CRSNG) is the major federal agency responsible for funding natural sciences and engineering rese ...

Postdoctoral Fellow. After completing a prized Jansky Postdoctoral Fellowship in 1993, he joined the research staff of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, where he remains today. He is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed research papers, including more than 30 articles in the prestigious journal

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

. He has made contributions to numerous sub-fields of astrophysics including multi-wavelength

electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions o ...

counterparts of gravitational-wave events,

gamma-ray bursts In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millis ...

extrasolar planets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, in ...

, soft gamma-ray repeaters, the

interstellar medium In astronomy, the interstellar medium is the matter and radiation that exist in the space between the star systems in a galaxy. This matter includes gas in ionic, atomic, and molecular form, as well as dust and cosmic rays. It fills interstella ...

pulsars A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward E ...

, masers, and

supernova remnants A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar ma ...

. To the public he is best known for discoveries in extrasolar planets and gamma-ray bursts. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, he was awarded a

Guggenheim fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

. From August 2011 through September 2015, he was NRAO's Assistant Director for the Karl G. Jansky

Very Large Array The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory located in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, ~ west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twent ...

and the

Very Long Baseline Array The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is a system of ten radio telescopes which are operated remotely from their Array Operations Center located in Socorro, New Mexico, as a part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO). These ten radi ...

, and site director for New Mexico operations. In 2016, he received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from

Key discoveries

In early 1992, Frail and Polish astronomer

Aleksander Wolszczan Aleksander Wolszczan (born 29 April 1946) is a Polish astronomer. He is the co-discoverer of the first confirmed extrasolar planets and pulsar planets. Early life and education Wolszczan was born on 29 April 1946 in Szczecinek located in pre ...

announced their discovery of the existence of two planets and a possible third around the pulsar

PSR B1257+12 PSR B1257+12, previously designated PSR 1257+12, alternatively designated PSR J1300+1240, is a millisecond pulsar located 2,300 light-years from the Sun in the constellation of Virgo, rotating at about 161 times per second (faster tha ...

. Their discovery was confirmed in mid-1992. In addition to being the first confirmed discovery of pulsar planets, the find is also generally considered to be the first confirmed discovery of extrasolar planets of any kind. Beginning in 1997, Frail was part of a

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

-NRAO team that helped unravel the long-standing mystery of the origin of gamma-ray bursts. They used an optical spectrum taken with the

Keck Telescope The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and when co ...

toward the optical afterglow of GRB 970508 to establish that gamma-ray bursts were at cosmological distances. They then used the

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

discovery of radio afterglow emission from this same burst to measure the object's size and infer that the source was expanding relativistically. These two observations have remained cornerstones in the cosmological fireball model for gamma-ray bursts. In 2009 Thomson ISI listed Frail as the third-most cited researcher in the field of gamma-ray bursts over the period from 1999 to February 2009.http://archive.sciencewatch.com/ana/st/gamma/authors/ Special Topics Analysis of Gamma-ray Burst (GRB) Research There are many popular science accounts of the discovery of extra-solar planets as well as those of gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows. Links to a few of these and other relevant articles can be found below.

References

External links

Dale Frail's home page''Flash! The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe''PBS Nova Episode ''Death Star''Thomson ISI Special Topics interview
*[http://www.dchieftain.com/opinion/editorials/time-machine-peers-back-billion-years/article_5bf021a1-9457-5262-bf47-2ed966e46a36.html El Defensor Chieftain/Albuquerque Journal, '' 'Time Machine' Peers Back 13 Billion Years'', November 4, 2009]
A radio counterpart to a neutron star merger, Science Magazine, December 22, 2017
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frail, Dale 20th-century Canadian astronomers Discoverers of exoplanets Year of birth missing (living people) Canadian expatriates in the United States Living people Acadia University alumni University of Toronto alumni Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Canadian astronomers