Blakesley Burkhart Explained

Blakesley Burkhart
Alma Mater:	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Fields:	Astrophysics
Known For:	Magnetohydrodynamics research
Thesis Title:	New frontiers for diagnosing the turbulent nature of the multiphase magnetized interstellar medium
Thesis Url:	https://www.proquest.com/docview/1609569269?parentSessionId=eHQrjLw8TYh0S4M7du5gFLgDpTXAD1V3stcLP2z0HP8%3D&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses
Thesis Year:	2014
Doctoral Advisor:	Alex Lazarian

Blakesley Burkhart is an astrophysicist. She is the winner of the 2017 Robert J. Trumpler Award awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which recognizes a Ph.D. thesis that is "particularly significant to astronomy." She also is the winner of the 2019 Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy and the 2022 winner of The American Physical Society's Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award. The awards both cited her work on magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, and for developing innovative techniques for comparing observable astronomical phenomena with theoretical models.^[1]

Career

Burkhart completed her Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2014. Her dissertation explores "connections between theoretical, numerical, and observational understanding of [magnetohydrodynamic turbulence] as it applies to the neutral, ionized, and molecular interstellar medium."^[2] She was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. She has made contributions to many other fields outside of plasma turbulence, including star formation, the intergalactic medium, globular cluster formation, and UV space telescope design.^[3] She worked with Mark R. Krumholz and others to develop a unified model of disc galaxies, working to explain why disc galaxies have a lower rate of star formation than is predicted by other models.^{[4] [5]} In August 2018, she became an associate research scientist at the Flatiron Institute's Center for Computational Astrophysics. She has been working as an assistant professor at Rutgers University in the department of Physics and Astronomy since September 2019.^[6]

She was the host of the 5 Minute Astronomy podcast from 89.9FM WORT in Madison.^[7]

Selected publications

• Burkhart. Blakesley. Falceta-Gonçalves. D.. Kowal. G.. Lazarian. A.. 2009-03-01. The Astrophysical Journal. 693. 1. 250–266. 10.1088/0004-637X/693/1/250. 0004-637X. 0811.0822. Density Studies of MHD Interstellar Turbulence: Statistical Moments, Correlations and Bispectrum. 2009ApJ...693..250B. 15997930.
• Gaensler. B. M.. Haverkorn. M.. Burkhart. B.. Newton–McGee. K. J.. Ekers. R. D.. Lazarian. A.. McClure–Griffiths. N. M.. Robishaw. T.. Dickey. J. M.. 2011-10-05. Low-Mach-number turbulence in interstellar gas revealed by radio polarization gradients. Nature. en. 478. 7368. 214–217. 10.1038/nature10446. 21976022. 1110.2896. 2011Natur.478..214G. 0028-0836. 2066/92017. 1472898. free.
• Burkhart. Blakesley. Stanimirović. Snežana. Snežana Stanimirović. Lazarian. A.. Kowal. Grzegorz. 2010-01-10. The Astrophysical Journal. 708. 2. 1204–1220. 10.1088/0004-637X/708/2/1204. 0004-637X. Characterizing Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence in the Small Magellanic Cloud. 0911.3652. 2010ApJ...708.1204B. free.

Selected lecture videos

• "The Photon Underproduction Crisis Solved: The Effect of AGN Feedback on the Low Redshift Lyman-alpha Forest", Institute for Theory and Computation, February 8, 2018
• Dr. Burkhart lecturing on “Galaxies as Star-Forming Engines: Simulating the Turbulent Birth of Stars”, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard, October 14, 2016^[8]

Awards received

• Jansky Award, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Astronomy, 2011^[9]
• NASA's Wisconsin Space Grant Fellowship, 2013-14^[10]
• Robert J. Trumpler Award, 2017^[11]
• Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy, 2019
• Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, 2020^[12]
• Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, 2021^[13]
• Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award, 2022^[14]

External links

• • Feature article in Rutgers University student newspaper
• Profile from University of Wisconsin Department of Astronomy

Notes and References

1. Web site: AAS Names Recipients of 2019 Awards & Honors American Astronomical Society. 2019-01-08. American Astronomical Society. https://web.archive.org/web/20190109110721/https://aas.org/media/press-releases/aas-announces-2019-prize-recipients. 2019-01-09. 2019-05-29. dead.
2. Web site: New frontiers for diagnosing the turbulent nature of the multiphase magnetized interstellar medium. Burkhart. Blakesley. University of Wisconsin - Madision. Madison, WI. 2019-05-28.
3. Web site: Burkhart Group Home Page.
4. Web site: How disc galaxies work. Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian. 2018-07-23. phys.org. en-us. 2019-05-29.
5. Krumholz. Mark R. Burkhart. Blakesley. Forbes. John C. Crocker. Roland M. 2018-06-21. A unified model for galactic discs: star formation, turbulence driving, and mass transport. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. en. 477. 2. 2716–2740. 10.1093/mnras/sty852. 0035-8711. 1706.00106. 2018MNRAS.477.2716K. 118882816.
6. Web site: CCA's Blakesley Burkhart Awarded Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy. 2019-01-09. Simons Foundation. en-US. 2019-05-29.
7. Web site: 5 Minute Astronomy on Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts. en-us. 2019-05-29.
8. Web site: Next in Science: Astronomy and Astrophysics. 2016-08-05. Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. en. 2019-05-30.
9. Web site: Blakesley Burkhart Wins Jansky Award UW-Madison Astronomy. www.astro.wisc.edu. 2019-05-29.
10. Web site: Graduate & Professional Research Fellowship Award Recipients. spacegrant.carthage.edu. en. 2019-05-29.
11. Web site: ITC Postdoc Blakesley Burkhart's Thesis Wins Trumpler Award.
12. Web site: 2020-10-15. 2020 Class of Packard Fellows Announced. 2020-12-02. The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. en-US.
13. Web site: 2021 Sloan Research Fellows.
14. Web site: APS Mayer Award . 2022-04-14 . www.aps.org . en.