Lars Bildsten (born 1964) is an American astrophysicist, best known for his work on the physics 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 ...

s and their explosions as

Type Ia supernova A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...

e. He is the sixth director of the

Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics The Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) is a research institute of the University of California, Santa Barbara dedicated to theoretical physics. KITP is one of 20 Kavli Foundation (United_States)#The Kavli Institutes, Kavli Institutes ...

at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a professor in the UCSB Physics Department.

Biography

Bildsten received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

with a major in

engineering physics Engineering physics (EP), sometimes engineering science, is the field of study combining pure science disciplines (such as physics, mathematics, chemistry or biology) and engineering disciplines (computer, nuclear, electrical, aerospace, medic ...

from

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

in 1985 and a

Doctor of Philosophy 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 Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1991. Bildsten was then a research fellow at

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

for three years, after which he accepted a faculty appointment at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. Rising from assistant to associate professor, in both the physics and astronomy departments, he moved to UCSB in 1999.Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics
"Lars Bildsten Biographical Sketch"
/ref> In 2010, he was awarded the Wayne Rosing, Simon and Diana Raab chair in theoretical astrophysics. He was named director of the Kavli Institute, succeeding

David Gross David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. ...

, in 2012. In addition to his university teaching and research, Bildsten has devoted significant effort to strengthening science and engineering education in grades 7–12. A member of the board of directors of Santa Barbara's

Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy Dos Pueblos High School is a public high school located in Goleta, California, northwest of Santa Barbara, California, Santa Barbara. Located adjacent to the foothills on the edge of the Goleta Valley in an area known as El Encanto Heights, it se ...

Foundation, he worked to raise $3 million in funding for a dedicated facility and to support math tutors.

Honors

Bildsten received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1995. In 1998, the

Research Corporation Research Corporation for Science Advancement (RCSA) is an organization in the United States devoted to the advancement of science, funding research projects in the physical sciences. Since 1912, Research Corporation for Science Advancement has id ...

designated him as a Cottrell Scholar. He was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize 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 1999 and the 2017 Dannie Heineman Prize. His invited lectureships include the 2000 Edwin Salpeter Lecture at Cornell, and the 2004 Biermann Lecture at the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics. He was elected to 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 ...

in 2018 and Elected a Legacy Fellow of the

in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bildsten, Lars 1964 births Living people 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American astronomers Cornell University alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics California Institute of Technology fellows Ohio State University College of Engineering alumni University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Fellows of the American Physical Society 20th-century American physicists 20th-century American astronomers