John Frederick 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 university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

. In 2013, he shared the

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 ...

for Astronomy with Steven Balbus.

Early life

John Hawley was born in 1958 in

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

. He was the younger brother of former astronaut Steven A. Hawley. The family moved to

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 1858 ...

when he was young. He graduated from Salina Central High School in 1976. Hawley was a 1980 graduate of

Haverford College Haverford College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Haverford, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded as a men's college in 1833 by members of the Religious Society of Fr ...

. He received his Ph.D. in astronomy from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1984 under the supervision of Larry Smarr.

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) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

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 served as chair of the Department of Astronomy from 2006 to 2012. In 2012 Hawley was appointed Associate Dean for the Sciences in the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research interests included computational astrophysics and accretion disks. He and his early collaborators pioneered numerical techniques for accretion flows and in the creation of graphics and animations to communicate their results.

Recognition

Hawley was the 1993 recipient of the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

. In 2013, he and former colleague Steven Balbus shared the

in Astronomy for their work on the magnetorotational instability (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 Kung fu film () is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in ''wuxia'', a related martial arts genre that uses historical ...

made by

Run Run Shaw Sir Run Run Shaw (born Shao Renleng; 19 November 1907 – 7 January 2014), also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong businessman, filmmaker, and philanthropist. He was one of the foremost influential movie moguls in the East As ...

, 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 Astronomy

The 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