Astronomer named prestigious Packard Fellow

Amy Barger, a UW–Madison professor of astronomy, is one of 16 young academics named a 2003 Packard Foundation Fellow for Science and Engineering, it was announced today (Oct. 15).

Chosen from among 99 nominees from the nation’s top 50 research universities, Barger and the other fellows will each receive an award of $625,000 during the next five years for unrestricted use in their programs of research.

Barger joined the UW–Madison faculty in 2000. Her research focuses on determining when cosmic star formation was most vigorous, when distant supermassive black holes were actively gobbling material from their nearby environments, and how the behavior of supermassive black holes relates to the star formation in their galaxy hosts.

“I will make observations to obtain a census of the galaxies and supermassive black holes in the universe,” Barger says. “Then I can begin to reconstruct the history of the universe from the earliest times that galaxies formed to the present.”

Barger also cites an interest in understanding gamma ray bursts – mysterious, fleeting and highly energetic events suspected to be the powerful explosions that occur when very massive stars collapse to become black holes.

The Packard Fellowship Program was established in 1988 and arose out of David Packard’s commitment to strengthening university-based science and engineering programs. By supporting unusually creative researchers early in their careers, the foundation hopes to develop scientific leaders, further the work of promising young scientists and engineers, and support efforts to attract talented graduate students into university research in the United States.

“The long-term commitment to the fellowship program has enabled scientists to pursue innovative lines of scientific inquiry and to inspire and train the next generation of young scientists and engineers,” says Lynn Orr, Keleen and Carlton Beal Professor at Stanford University and chair of the Fellowship Advisory Panel. “Their research will make a positive impact on local, national and global levels.” Orr is a member of the Packard Foundation board of trustees.

During the past 15 years, the fellowship program has awarded 332 fellowships, totaling more than $192 million, to faculty members at 51 top national universities. It is among the nation’s largest nongovernmental programs designed to seek out and reward the pursuit of scientific discovery with “no strings attached” support. The fellowship program funds fellows’ research in a broad range of disciplines that includes physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, astronomy, computer science, earth science, ocean science and all branches of engineering.

The 2003 fellows were nominated by their university presidents or chancellors. The 99 nominations were reviewed by the Fellowship Advisory Panel, a group of nationally recognized scientists, which then recommended 16 fellows for approval by the Packard Foundation Board of Trustees.