James Michael Moran

James Moran is an American radio astronomer living in Massachusetts, USA. He was a professor of Astronomy at Harvard University from 1989 through 2016, a senior radio astronomer at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory from 1981 through 2020 and the director of the Submillimeter Array during its construction and early operational phases from 1995 through 2005. In 1998 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences,[1] in 2010 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[2] and in 2020 to the American Philosophical Society.[3] He is currently the Donald H. Menzel Professor of Astrophysics, Emeritus, at Harvard University.

James Michael Moran
Born(1943-01-03)3 January 1943
Plainfield, NJ, USA
Citizenship United States
Alma materB.S. University of Notre Dame (1963)
S.M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1965)
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1968)
Known forradio astronomy
radio interferometry

Dr. Moran is perhaps best known for his VLBI studies of 22 GHz water maser emission from the nucleus of the galaxy NGC 4258 (M106). These observations provided compelling evidence of a supermassive black hole in the center of that galaxy, and a precise value for the black hole's mass. Monitoring of the proper motion of the individual maser spots in the black hole's accretion disk allowed a direct measurement of the distance to NGC 4258, which provided an important calibrator for the use of Cepheid variable stars as distance indicators.[4]

Dr. Moran wrote, along with Richard Thompson and George Swenson, a comprehensive graduate-level textbook on radio interferometry: Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy, the third edition of which was published in 2017. It is an open-access book, available for free online.[5]

Dr. Moran was the thesis advisor for 13 Ph.D. students during his time as a Harvard professor.[6]

Awards
  • Rumford Prize (1971) (shared), American Academy of Arts and Sciences[7]
  • Outstanding Publication Award (1975) (shared), Naval Research Laboratory
  • Newton Lacy Pierce Prize (1978), American Astronomical Society[8]
  • Outstanding Publication Award (1979) (shared), Naval Research Laboratory
  • Senior Humboldt Award (1992), Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung
  • Jansky Lectureship (1996), National Radio Astronomy Observatory[9]
  • Grote Reber Gold Medal (2013), Grote Reber Foundation[10]
  • Diamond Achievement Award (2019) (shared with EHT team), National Science Foundation[11]
  • Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics (2019) (shared with EHT team), Fundamental Physics Prize Foundation[12]
  • Bruno Rossi Prize (2020) (shared with EHT team), American Astronomical Society[13]
  • Oort Professorship (2020), Leiden University
  • Group Achievement Award (2021) (shared with EHT team), Royal Astronomical Society[14]

References
  1. "James M. Moran". Membership Directory. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  2. "James Michael Moran". Member Directory. American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  3. "The American Philosophical Society Welcomes New Members for 2020". American Philosophical Society. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  4. Moran, James M. (2008). "The Black Hole Accretion Disk in NGC 4258: One of Nature's Most Beautiful Dynamical Systems". ASP Conf. Ser. 395: 87. arXiv:0804.1063. Bibcode:2008ASPC..395...87M.
  5. "Interferometry and Synthesis in Radio Astronomy". Springer. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  6. "Ph.D. Students" (PDF). Harvard University. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  7. "James Michael Moran". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  8. "Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  9. "Jansky Lectureship". National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  10. "James M. Moran". National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  11. "NSF announces new Diamond Achievement Award". National Science Foundation. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  12. "Laureates". Breakthrough Prize. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  13. "The 2020 Rossi Prize Press Release". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
  14. "Royal Astronomical Society Honours Stars of Astronomy and Geophysics". Royal Astronomical Society. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
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