Ben R. Oppenheimer

Ben R. Oppenheimer (b. April 1972 in New York City) is an American astrophysicist and one of three curators in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Oppenheimer holds an adjunct professorship at Columbia University's Department of Astronomy and has published over one hundred research and public-oriented science articles. He is co-discoverer of the first brown dwarf, Gliese 229B [cite web | last = Nakajima, T. et al. | date = 1995-11-20 | url = http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v378/n6556/abs/378463a0.html | title = Discovery of a cool brown dwarf | publisher = Nature Publishing Group | language = English | accessdate = 2006-12-12 ] [cite web | last = Oppenheimer, B. R. et al. | date = 1995-12-01 | url = http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/270/5241/1478 | title = Infrared Spectrum of the Cool Brown Dwarf Gl 229B | publisher = Science Magazine | language = English | accessdate = 2006-12-12 ] , and is active in research on exoplanets [cite web | title=The Lyot Project Website | url = http://lyot.org | date = January, 2004] , white dwarfs [cite web | title = White Dwarfs by the Billions | url = http://www.astrosociety.org/pubs/mercury/30_03/dwarfs.html | date = May, June, 2001] , adaptive optics and coronagraphy [cite web | first = Dennis | last = Overbye | title = Grasping for Light of Distant Worlds | publisher = New York Times | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F6091EFE385D0C718EDDAF0894DC404482 | date = 2004-06-22] . Oppenheimer serves on NASA [cite web | title= Terrestrial Planet Finder Science and Technology Definition Team | url = http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/TPF/tpf_team.cfm#c_stdt | date = March 2005] , NSF and NRC committees.

Background

Oppenheimer attended the Horace Mann School in the Bronx. After graduating in 1990, he attended Columbia University, where he was an I. I. Rabi Science Scholar. He received a BA in Physics from Columbia in 1994. In 1999 he was awarded a Ph. D. in astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology and spent the following two years at the University of California at Berkeley on a Hubble Space Telescope Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. In 2001 he moved back to New York City to conduct research at the American Museum of Natural History. Oppenheimer regularly gives public and professional lectures on astronomical research.

External links

* [http://research.amnh.org/users/bro/ Professional Homepage]
* [http://research.amnh.org/users/bro/papers/cv.pdf Curriculum Vitae]
* [http://www.amnh.org/science/divisions/physsci/bio.php?scientist=oppenheimer Bio at the American Museum of Natural History]
* [http://lyot.org The Lyot Project]
* [http://research.amnh.org/astrophysics/ Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History]

References