Anthony George Alexander Brown (born 12 May 1969) is a Dutch astronomer currently working at the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

most noted for leading the Gaia project's Data Processing and Analysis Consortium. He was listed in the 2018

Nature's 10 ''Nature'' 10 is an annual listicle of ten "people who mattered" in science, produced by the scientific journal ''Nature (journal), Nature''. Nominees have made a significant impact in science either for good or for bad. Reporters and editorial s ...

as one of the ''Ten people who mattered this year'' by the scientific journal ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

.''

Biography

Anthony Brown obtained his Master of Science degree ''cum laude'' in Astronomy from the

in 1991, where he also obtained his PhD in 1996 on the topic of the stellar content and evolution of OB associations. After postdoc positions at the

, the

National Astronomical Observatory (Mexico) The National Astronomical Observatory (Spanish: ''Observatorio Astronómico Nacional''—OAN) is an astronomical observatory in Baja California, Mexico. History Mexico City The observatory was first established on the balcony of Chapultepec Ca ...

, and the European Southern Observatory (Germany), he rejoined the

first as a research associate from 2001 to 2006, and then as faculty member. His involvement with the

Gaia mission ''Gaia'' was a space observatory of the European Space Agency (ESA) that was launched in 2013 and operated until March 2025. The spacecraft was designed for astrometry: measuring the positions, distances and motions of stars with unprecedented ...

started in 1997 with contributions to the science case for the mission. As a member of the photometric and classification working groups, he contributed to the optimization of the photometric filter system, and has been a member of the Gaia science team since 2006. He was appointed Chair of the Gaia Data Processing and Analysis Consortium (DPAC) Executive in 2012, and is the corresponding author of Gaia Data Release 1 and 2. He delivered the prestigious Spitzer Lectures at Princeton University in 2019.

Selected papers

* Brown, Anthony GA, et al. "Gaia Data Release 1-Summary of the astrometric, photometric, and survey properties." Astronomy & Astrophysics 595 (2016): A2.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Anthony 1961 births Living people 21st-century Dutch astronomers Leiden University alumni Academic staff of Leiden University