Gary Alan Wegner (born

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

on December 26, 1944) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, the endowed Leede '49 Professor of Physics and

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

, and recipient of the Alexander Von

Humboldt Prize The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of ...

. Wegner was also a member of a famous group of seven astronomers called the Seven Samurai who, in the 1980s, discovered the location of the

Great Attractor The Great Attractor is a region of gravitational attraction in intergalactic space and the apparent central gravitational point of the Laniakea Supercluster of galaxies that includes the Milky Way galaxy, as well as about 100,000 other galaxi ...

. He has co-authored and authored over 320 articles in astronomy and astrophysics.

Who's Who in America Marquis Who's Who, also known as A.N. Marquis Company ( or ), is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in A ...

Gary A. Wegner
/ref>
/ref>

Early life

Gary Wegner grew up in Washington State and was interested and involved in Astronomy from an early age. His first published work (as a teenager) comprised drawings of the surface of the planet Mercury. As a youth, he constructed a large telescope in his backyard, and received a

Westinghouse Science Talent Search Westinghouse may refer to: Businesses Current companies *Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the company that manages the Westinghouse brand, with licensees: **Westinghouse Electric Company, providing nuclear power-related services ** Westingho ...

award when he was in high school, earning him a trip to Washington D.C.

Academic work

Gary Wegner received his BSc degree from the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

in 1967, and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

degree in

from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

in 1971. He is the Margaret Anne and Edward Leede '49 Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth and a recipient of the prestigious Alexander Von

from the

Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by t ...

in Germany where he spent time at the

Ruhr University The Ruhr University Bochum (, ) is a public research university located in the southern hills of the central Ruhr area, Bochum, Germany. It was founded in 1962 as the first new public university in Germany after World War II. Instruction began i ...

. He has also worked at

Mount Stromlo Observatory Mount Stromlo Observatory located in the west of Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU). Australia's oldest telescope and several others at the observatory we ...

in the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

, the

South African Astronomical Observatory The South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) is the national centre for optical and infrared astronomy in South Africa. It was established in 1972. The observatory is run by the National Research Foundation of South Africa. The facility's f ...

, the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

Kitt Peak National Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomy, astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With ...

, and he was director of

MDM Observatory The MDM Observatory (''Michigan-Dartmouth-MIT Observatory''; List of observatory codes, obs. code: IAU code#697, 697) is an optical astronomical observatory located adjacent to Kitt Peak National Observatory on Kitt Peak, west of Tucson, ...

from 1991-99. His current work focuses on

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

and he is also well known for his study of

white dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

stars. Gary Wegner was a member of a group of astronomers known as the "Seven Samurai" which postulated the existence of the

, a huge, diffuse region of material around 250 million light-years away that results in the observed motion of our local galaxies.

Donald Lynden-Bell Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS (5 April 1935 – 6 February 2018) was a British theoretical astrophysicist. He was the first to determine that galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centres, and that such black holes power quasars. ...

Private life

He has been married to Cynthia Kay Wegner since 1966 and has five children and two grandchildren. He is the father of Josef Wegner, professor of Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania and discoverer of the tomb of pharaoh Woseribre Senebkay.

Publications

Wegner has published over 320 peer-reviewed papers in astronomy. The 10 with the most citations are : *Schechter, P.L., Bailyn, C.D., Barr, R., Barvainis, R., Decker, C.M., Bernstein, G.M., Blakeslee, J.P., Bus, S.J., Dressler, A., Falco, E.E., Fesen, R.A., Fischer, P., Gebhardt, K., Harmer, D., Hewitt, J.N., Hjorth, J., Hurt, T., Jaunsen, A.O., Mateo, M., Mehlert, D., Richstone, D.O., Sparke, L.S., Thorstensen, J.R., Tonry, J.L., Wegner, G., Willmarth, D.W., Worthey, G. "The quadruple gravitational lens PG 1115+080: Time delays and models" (1997) Astrophysical Journal, 475 (2 PART II), pp. L85-L88. Cited 132 times. *Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Herter, T., Vogt, N.P., Wegner, G., Salzer, J.J., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W. "The I band Tully-Fisher relation for cluster galaxies: Data presentation" (1997) Astronomical Journal, 113 (1), pp. 22–52. Cited 105 times. *Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Herter, T., Vogt, N.P., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G. "The I band Tully-Fisher relation for cluster galaxies: A template relation. Its scatter and bias corrections" (1997) Astronomical Journal, 113 (1), pp. 53–79. Cited 96 times. *Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W. "Extinction in Sc galaxies" (1994) Astronomical Journal, 107 (6), pp. 2036–2054. Cited 88 times. *Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G. "The Tully-Fisher relation and H0" (1997) Astrophysical Journal, 477 (1 PART II), pp. L1-L4. Cited 78 times. *Bernardi, M., Renzini, A., Da Costa, L.N., Wegner, G., Alonso, M.V., Pellegrini, P.S., Rité, C., Willmer, C.N.A. "Cluster versus field elliptical galaxies and clues on their formation" (1998) Astrophysical Journal, 508 (2 PART II), pp. L143-L146. Cited 76 times. *McHardy, I.M., Jones, L.R., Merrifield, M.R., Mason, K.O., Newsam, A.M., Abraham, R.G., Dalton, G.B., Carrera, F., Smith, P.J., Rowan-Robinson, M., Wegner, G.A., Ponman, T.J., Lehto, H.J., Branduardi-Raymont, G., Luppino, G.A., Efstathiou, G., Allan, D.J., Quenby, J.J. "The origin of the cosmic soft X-ray background: Optical identification of an extremely deep ROSAT survey" (1998)

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in astronomy, astrophysics and related fields. It publishes original research in two formats: papers (of any length) and letters (limited to ...

, 295 (3), pp. 641–671. Cited 69 times. *Da Costa, L.N.., Freudling, W., Wegner, G., Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Salzer, J.J. "The mass distribution in the nearby universe" (1996) Astrophysical Journal, 468 (1 PART II), pp. L5-L8. Cited 62 times. *Haynes, M.P., Giovanelli, R., Chamaraux, P., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G. "The I-band Tully-Fisher relation for Sc galaxies: 21 Centimeter H I line data" (1999) Astronomical Journal, 117 (5), pp. 2039–2051. Cited 61 times. *Giovanelli, R., Haynes, M.P., Salzer, J.J., Wegner, G., Da Costa, L.N., Freudling, W. "Dependence on luminosity of photometric properties of disk galaxies: Surface brightness, size, and internal extinction" (1995) Astronomical Journal, 110 (3), pp. 1059–1070. Cited 60 times. *Geller, M.J., Kurtz, M.J., Wegner, G., Thorstensen, J.R., Fabricant, D.G., Marzke, R.O., Huchra, J.P., Schild, R.E., Falco, E.E. "The century survey: A deeper slice of the universe" (1997) Astronomical Journal, 114 (6), pp. 2205–2211. Cited 59 times.

Notes

External links

* http://www.dartmouth.edu/~physics/faculty/wegner.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Wegner, Gary 1944 births Living people Scientists from Seattle American astronomers Humboldt Research Award recipients