John F. Hawley (August 23, 1958 – December 12, 2021) was an American astrophysicist and a professor of astronomy at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

. In 2013, he shared the Shaw Prize for Astronomy with Steven Balbus.

Early life

John Hawley was born in 1958 in Annapolis, Maryland. He is the younger brother of former astronaut Steven A. Hawley and graduated from Central High School in

Salina, Kansas Salina is a city in, and the county seat of, Saline County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 46,889. In the early 1800s, the Kanza tribal land reached eastward from the middle of the Kansas Territory. In 1 ...

. Hawley is a graduate of Haverford College. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in 1984.

Professional career

Hawley was a Bantrell Prize Fellow in Theoretical Astrophysics at the

California Institute of Technology 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 ...

from 1984 to 1987. He then joined the faculty of the

in 1987 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to full professor in 1999 and was chair of the Department of Astronomy from 2006 to 2012. As of 2015, Hawley is the Associate Dean for the Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. His research interests include computational astrophysics and accretion disks.

Recognition

Hawley was the 1993 recipient of the

Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy The Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy is awarded annually by the American Astronomical Society to a young astronomer (aged less than 36, or within 8 years of the award of their PhD) for a significant contribution to observational or theoretical ...

of the American Astronomical Society. In 2013, he and former colleague Steven Balbus shared the Shaw Prize in Astronomy for their work on the

magnetorotational instability The magnetorotational instability (MRI) is a fluid instability that causes an accretion disk orbiting a massive central object to become turbulent. It arises when the angular velocity of a conducting fluid in a magnetic field decreases as the d ...

(MRI). Considered one of the highest honors in astronomy, the prize included a US$1 million cash award. According to the Shaw selection committee the "discovery and elucidation of the magnetorotational instability (MRI)" solved the previously "elusive" problem of accretion, a widespread phenomenon in astrophysics and "provides what to this day remains the only viable mechanism for the outward transfer of angular momentum in accretion disks". The Shaw Prize ceremony was held September 23 in Hong Kong. When Hawley learned of the Shaw Prize via email, he thought it was a scam. "I started looking for the Nigerian return address and a request for my bank account number," he later joked. He also recalled watching late-night kung fu movies made by

Run Run Shaw Sir Run Run Shaw (19 November 1907 – 7 January 2014), also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong entertainment mogul and philanthropist. He was one of the most influential figures in the Asian entertainment industry. He founde ...

, the prize's founder, and joked that now he would have to buy a good tuxedo rather than wear "the usual astronomer attire – blue jeans and sneakers." On the prize money, he commented "We're just selfless scientists who live for the joy of discovery, but it's nice to get some cash, too."

References

External links

University of Virginia Department of AstronomyThe Shaw Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawley, John F. 1958 births 2021 deaths American astrophysicists University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni California Institute of Technology faculty University of Virginia faculty People from Annapolis, Maryland Deaths from cancer in Virginia