Stanislav George Djorgovski
Astronomer and data scientist known for galaxy studies and sky surveys.
Stanislav George Djorgovski (born 1956) is an American scientist and scholar. He obtained his B.A. in astrophysics in 1979 at the University of Belgrade and his PhD in astronomy from U.C. Berkeley in 1985.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1956
- B.a. in astrophysics
- 1979, University of Belgrade
- Phd in astronomy
- 1985, U.C. Berkeley
- Current position
- Professor of astronomy and data science, California Institute of Technology
- Erdős number
- 2
Facts from the source article.
Selected awards and recognitions
Djorgovski was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow from 1988 to 1991 and a presidential young investigator from 1991 to 1997. He was listed among the ISI 1000 most cited physicists for 1981–1997. He received the Dudley Observatory Award in 1991 and the NASA Group Achievement Award in 1996. He was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science in 2014. The asteroid 24421 Djorgovski is named in his honor.
Contributions in astronomy and cosmology
Djorgovski has worked on galaxy formation and evolution, globular clusters, gravitational lenses, quasars, gamma-ray bursts, and cosmological tests. Notable discoveries include pioneering studies of radio galaxies beyond z > 1, discovery of collapsed cores in globular clusters, and the first census thereof with I.R. King. He discovered globular clusters Djorgovski 1 and Djorgovski 2. With M. Davis, he discovered the Fundamental plane correlations for elliptical galaxies. He discovered the first known galaxy at z > 3 and the first examples of binary quasars, a triple quasar, and several tens of gravitational lenses. He contributed to the first GRB redshift, demonstrating the cosmological nature of gamma-ray bursts. He was principal investigator of the Digital Palomar Observatory Sky Survey from 1992 to 2002, co-principal investigator of the Palomar-Quest synoptic sky survey from 2003 to 2008, and principal investigator of the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey from 2008 to 2020.
Contributions in e-science, data science and science informatics
Djorgovski is one of the founders of the Virtual Observatory and chaired the US National Virtual Observatory Science Definition Team that generated the initial VO roadmap. He pioneered the use of machine learning tools for analysis of large digital sky surveys in the 1990s. He is a founder of AstroInformatics and founding director of the Center for Data-Driven Discovery at Caltech. He was founding president of the International AstroInformatics Association.
Teaching and outreach
Djorgovski teaches open online courses including The Evolving Universe on edX and Galaxies and Cosmology on Coursera. With his team, he produced the digital image of the Virgo cluster displayed as the 'Big Picture' mural at Griffith Observatory, the largest astronomical image in the world. He also contributed to the WorldWide Telescope sky browser.
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