John Anthony Tyson (''aka'' J. Anthony Tyson or Tony Tyson; born 5 April 1940, Pasadena) is an American physicist and astronomer. Tyson received in 1962 his bachelor's degree from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and in 1967 his Ph.D. from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

. He was a postdoc from 1967 to 1969 at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. He was then a member of the technical staff at AT&T

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

from 1969 to 1985. In 1985 he became a distinguished member of the technical staff (a position for experienced scientists and engineers in major U. S. companies) at Bell Laboratories until 2004. Since 2004 he has been a professor at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

. In the late 1970s he applied CCDs to astronomy, discovering the faint blue galaxies. Using these distant galaxies he made the first maps of dark matter using

weak gravitational lensing While the presence of any mass bends the path of light passing near it, this effect rarely produces the giant arcs and multiple images associated with strong gravitational lensing. Most lines of sight in the universe are thoroughly in the weak ...

. Tyson built the Big Throughput Camera, which was used to discover dark energy. In the 1990s he started a project to build a next generation sky survey, and directed the project for 15 years. He is now the chief scientist for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. His research interests are

cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe, the cosmos. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', with the meaning of "a speaking of the wo ...

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

dark energy In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is a proposed form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe. It also slows the rate of structure format ...

, observational optical astronomy, experimental gravitational physics, and new instruments.

Honors and awards

* 1984: Elected Fellow,

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

* 1985: IR 100 Award, Industrial Research * 1996: Aaronson Memorial Prize * 1997: Elected Fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

* 1997: Elected a Member of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

* 1998: Scott Lecturer, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University * 1998: Hon. D.Sc., University of Chicago * 1999: APS Centennial Speaker * 2000: Elected a Member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=2000;smode=advanced;startDoc=21 * 2022: Asteroid 179223 Tonytyson, discovered by astronomers with the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey The Sloan Digital Sky Survey or SDSS is a major multi-spectral imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey using a dedicated 2.5-m wide-angle optical telescope at Apache Point Observatory in New Mexico, United States. The project began in 2000 a ...

in 2001, was named in his honor. The official was published by IAU's WGSBN on 7 February 2022.

References

External links

Tyson, Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, J. Anthony 20th-century American physicists 21st-century American physicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the American Philosophical Society Stanford University alumni University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of California, Davis faculty 1940 births Living people University of Chicago people