Gerald Jay (Jerry) Fishman (born February 10, 1943) is an American research astrophysicist, specializing in

gamma-ray astronomy Gamma-ray astronomy is a subfield of astronomy where scientists observe and study celestial objects and phenomena in outer space which emit cosmic electromagnetic radiation in the form of gamma rays,Astronomical literature generally hyphena ...

. His research interests also include space and nuclear instrumentation and radiation in space. A native of

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

, Fishman obtained a B.S. with Honors degree in

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

in 1965, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in

space science Space is a three-dimensional continuum containing positions and directions. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions. Modern physicists usually consider it, with time, to be part of a boundless ...

from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

in 1968 and 1970, respectively.

Career

While in graduate school at Rice University in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, Fishman served as a research assistant and research associate in the space science department. He was involved in balloon-borne observations of high-energy radiation from space, and the research group was the first to detect

gamma-rays A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists o ...

originating from the

Crab Nebula The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is a supernova remnant and pulsar wind nebula in the constellation of Taurus (constellation), Taurus. The common name comes from a drawing that somewhat resembled a crab with arm ...

. Further observations showed that a large fraction of this radiation was from the

pulsar A pulsar (''pulsating star, on the model of quasar'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its Poles of astronomical bodies#Magnetic poles, magnetic poles. This radiation can be obse ...

in this nebula. In 1969, Fishman began his professional career as a senior scientist working on aerospace projects at the research laboratories of Teledyne Brown Engineering in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

. This research operation had been instigated by Milton K. Cummings, after whom the

Cummings Research Park Cummings Research Park, located primarily in the city of Huntsville, Alabama is the second largest research park in the United States and the fourth largest in the world. It has a mixture of Fortune 500 companies, local and international high-tech ...

, the second largest in America, was named. Fishman joined

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

at the

Marshall Space Flight Center Marshall Space Flight Center (officially the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center; MSFC), located in Redstone Arsenal, Alabama (Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville postal address), is the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government's ...

in Huntsville as a research scientist in 1974. From the start, he worked in high-energy astrophysics, and his interest soon centered on

. Gamma-rays are generated by celestial events including

supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...

explosions, creation of

black holes A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...

, destruction of

positron The positron or antielectron is the particle with an electric charge of +1''elementary charge, e'', a Spin (physics), spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same Electron rest mass, mass as an electron. It is the antiparticle (antimatt ...

s, and

radioactive decay Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...

of the

atomic nucleus The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford at the Department_of_Physics_and_Astronomy,_University_of_Manchester , University of Manchester ...

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

in space. Therefore, the detection and analysis of gamma-rays provide an insight on the fundamental nature of the universe. During 1978-79, Fishman took an assignment with NASA Headquarters as a staff scientist in the Astrophysics Division of the Office of Space Science. Upon returning to MSFC, he continued his work in gamma-ray astronomy. He was the principal investigator of the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) on the

Compton Gamma Ray Observatory The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with photon energy, energies from 20 kElectronvolt#Properties, eV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main tel ...

(CGRO). This observatory was the second (after Hubble) of NASA's four Great Observatories in space. After 14 years in development, CGRO was launched by the

Space Shuttle Atlantis Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' (Orbiter Vehicle designation: OV‑104) is a retired Space Shuttle orbiter vehicle which belongs to NASA, the spaceflight and space exploration agency of the United States. ''Atlantis'' was manufactured by the Rockw ...

in April 1991 (STS-37). When one of the

gyroscope A gyroscope (from Ancient Greek γῦρος ''gŷros'', "round" and σκοπέω ''skopéō'', "to look") is a device used for measuring or maintaining Orientation (geometry), orientation and angular velocity. It is a spinning wheel or disc in ...

s on CGRO failed, NASA decided that a controlled crash into the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

was preferable to letting the craft come down on its own at random; it was then intentionally de-orbited in June 2000. The primary objective of the BATSE experiment was the study of

gamma-ray bursts In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme electromagnetic emissions are second o ...

. The BATSE experiment also serendipitously discovered

terrestrial gamma-ray flashes A terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), also known as dark lightning, is a burst of gamma rays produced in Earth's atmosphere. TGFs have been recorded to last 0.2 to 3.5 milliseconds, and have energies of up to 20 million electronvolts. It is spec ...

above thunderstorms. The Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Team at the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville continues to examine data from BATSE. Fishman is currently a co-investigator of the

Gamma-ray Burst Monitor The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is ...

(GBM) on the

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is ...

, launched in 2008. The 2011

Shaw Prize The Shaw Prize is a set of three annual awards presented by the Shaw Prize Foundation in the fields of astronomy, medicine and life sciences, and mathematical sciences. Established in 2002 in Hong Kong, by Hong Kong entertainment mogul and p ...

– commonly called the Asian Nobel Prize – was shared by Fishman and Italian astronomer Enrico Costa for their gamma-ray research.

Recognitions and awards

*NASA Medal for Outstanding Scientific Achievement – 1982, 1991, 1992 *Alan Berman Research Publications Award – Naval Research Laboratory - 1992 *

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is an international non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a faculty member and graduate students in 1886 and is one of the oldest ...

Research Scientist of the Year, Huntsville – 1993 *Distinguished Alumnus Award, Univ. of Missouri – 1994 *

Bruno Rossi Prize The Bruno Rossi Prize is awarded annually by the High Energy Astrophysics division of the American Astronomical Society "for a significant contribution to High Energy Astrophysics, with particular emphasis on recent, original work". Named after as ...

, High Energy Astrophysics Division, AAS - 1994 *Fellow - American Physical Society – 1995 *Institute for Scientific Information, Highly Cited Scientist (top 1%) – 2001 *

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, a ...

– 2011 *The

in Astronomy – 2011

Publications and citations

, Gerald J. Fishman had over 900 publications, including encyclopedia articles, published proceedings, published abstracts, reports, and patents, as compiled by SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data Systems."The SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System"; http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html Of these, 249 are referred published articles and 138 published articles as first author: There are about 13,000 citations of published articles, including 11,200 citations of referred published articles.

Personal

Gerald J. Fishman was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Irwin and Minnie Fishman. His grandparents immigrated from Eastern Europe. He married Nancy Neyman in 1967; they have two daughters, Lisa and Jodi, and three granddaughters, Morgan, Leah, and Ella.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fishman, Gerald J. 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American physicists University of Missouri alumni University of Missouri physicists Rice University alumni 1943 births Scientists from St. Louis Living people Fellows of the American Physical Society