Roger David Blandford, FRS, FRAS (born 1949) is a British theoretical astrophysicist, best known for his work on

black hole 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 ...

Early life

Blandford was born in

Grantham Grantham () is a market town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England, situated on the banks of the River Witham and bounded to the west by the A1 road (Great Britain), A1 road. It lies south of Lincoln, England ...

, England and grew up in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, where he attended King Edward's School.

Career

Blandford is famous in the astrophysical community for the

Blandford–Znajek process The Blandford–Znajek process is a mechanism for the extraction of energy from a rotating black hole, introduced by Roger Blandford and Roman Znajek in 1977. This mechanism is the most preferred description of how Astrophysical jet, astrophysical ...

, which is a mechanism for powering

relativistic jets An astrophysical jet is an astronomy, astronomical phenomenon where outflows of Ionization, ionised matter are emitted as extended beams along the rotation, axis of rotation. When this greatly accelerated matter in the beam approaches the speed of ...

by the extraction of rotational energy from a black hole. The Blandford–Znajek mechanism has been invoked by the

Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a Astronomical interferometer, telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, wh ...

Collaboration to explain the jet power in the first observation of a black hole shadow in the giant

elliptical galaxy An elliptical galaxy is a type of galaxy with an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. They are one of the three main galaxy morphological classification, classes of galaxy described by Edwin Hubble in his Hub ...

M87. Blandford also theorized another mechanism for jet formation through hydromagnetic winds launched from accretion disks. In addition to the Blandford–Znajek and Blandford–Payne mechanisms for the formation of relativistic jets, Roger Blandford also helped devise a widely used theoretical model for jet geometric and spectral properties, the Blandford–Königl conical jet model, used to predict radio shifts and low-frequency spectral slopes for optically thick jet cores. He has also made significant contributions to other astrophysical phenomena such as supernovae, by extending the Sedov–Taylor blast wave solution to the ultra-relativistic limit of the Blandford–McKee solution. In April 2005 he wrote a letter to the astronomy community showing his concern about the George W. Bush administration US space science policy. He was also the chair of Astro2010, the decadal survey that helps define and recommend funding priorities for U.S. astronomy research in the upcoming decade. The Astro2010 report was released 13 August 2010.

Positions

Blandford is a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

, Member of the U.S.

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 ...

, Fellow of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

and Fellow of the

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 ...

. He is currently Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at

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 ...

, Professor of Physics at Stanford University and at

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Menlo Park, California, Menlo Park, Ca ...

(SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory. He was the Pehong and Adele Chen Director,

Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology The Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) is an independent joint laboratory of Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, founded in 2003 by a gift by Fred Kavli and The Kavli Foundation. It is ho ...

from 2003 to 2013. He was a co-editor of the ''

Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics The ''Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics'' is an annual peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Annual Reviews. The co-editors are Ewine van Dishoeck and Robert C. Kennicutt. The journal reviews scientific literature pertaining t ...

'' (2005–2011).

Awards

* 2020 – Elected a Legacy Fellow 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 ...

* 2020 – Shaw Prize in Astronomy * 2016 –

Crafoord Prize The Crafoord Prize () is an annual science prize established in 1980 by Holger Crafoord, a Swedish industrialist, and his wife Anna-Greta Crafoord following a donation to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It is awarded jointly by the Acade ...

* 2013 –

Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society The Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society is the highest award given by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). The RAS Council have "complete freedom as to the grounds on which it is awarded" and it can be awarded for any reason. Past awar ...

* 2011 – Humboldt Prize * 1999 – Eddington Medal * 1998 –

Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics The Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics is jointly awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics for outstanding work in astrophysics. It is funded by the Heineman Foundation in honour of Dannie Hein ...

* 1982 – Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy

References

External links

Oral history interview transcript with Roger Blandford on 29 April 2021, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives

Prof Roger Blandford, FRS
at Debrett's ''People of Today'' * , Part of the Silicon Valley Astronomy Lecture Series {{DEFAULTSORT:Blandford, Roger 1949 births Living people People from Grantham Alumni of Magdalene College, Cambridge 20th-century British astronomers Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Astronomical Society Institute for Advanced Study visiting scholars Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Winners of the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics 21st-century British astronomers Annual Reviews (publisher) editors Fellows of the American Physical Society Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge