Gary Ferland Explained

Gary J. Ferland
Birth Name:Gary Joseph Ferland
Birth Date:10 May 1951
Birth Place:Washington D.C., US
Fields:Astrophysics
Thesis Title:Spectroscopic Observations of Nova V1500 Cygni
Thesis Year:1978
Doctoral Advisor:David L. Lambert
Gregory Shields
Awards:Catedratico de Excelencia Guillermo Haro, (2016)
AAS Fellow
AAAS Fellow
RAS Fellow

Gary Joseph Ferland (born May 10, 1951, in Washington D.C.) is an American astrophysicist. He is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Kentucky.[1] He is best known for developing the astrophysical simulation code Cloudy, for his work on physical processes in ionized plasmas, and investigations of the chemical evolution of the cosmos.

Biography

He joined the University of Texas Astronomy Department in 1973 wherehe received his Ph.D. in 1978, studying the 1975 explosion of V1500 Cygni atMcDonald Observatory.[2] From 1978 to 1980 he was at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridgewhere he worked with Martin Rees on International Ultraviolet Explorer observations of radio galaxies.[3] He joined the faculty of the University of Kentucky in 1980. The American Astronomical Society'sAstronomy Genealogy Project[4] lists the 17 PhDs hehas supervised.[5]

Ferland is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society,[6] and has served on their Governing Council in addition to their Publications Board.[7] He was named Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science[8] in 2023 and is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. He is a long-time member of the International Astronomical Union[9] where he was on the Organizing Committee of Division VI (2003–2009)and Commission 34 (2006–2012) Interstellar Matter.

His research involves the interactions between light and matter, especially how the photons we receive can tell us about events at the edges of the Universe.[10] He has also studied such diverse environmentsas the interstellar medium, planetary nebulae, H II region, photodissociation regions, and Active Galactic Nuclei.His discovery of a tidal disruption event in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 548[11] was listed by Science News as one of the top ten discoveries in astronomy in 1986.[12]

He is best known as a developer of the open-source spectral simulation code Cloudy,[13] a project he started at Cambridge in 1978. The code uses large databases of atomic, molecular and interstellar grain cross sections and rate coefficients to determine the physical state of a non-equilibrium plasma, the emission or absorption properties of Interstellar clouds,and predict the observed spectrum. Cloudy helps to understand the emission and absorption spectra of plasmas and to interpret observational data from various astrophysical sources.Nature Astronomy named Cloudy their first Code of honour[14] in their Access Code[15] series.

He has edited two books in addition to more than 700 articles on astronomy and astrophysics.[16] He is a co-author on the influential[17] 2006 textbook Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei, written with Donald E. Osterbrock of Lick Observatory and the University of California at Santa Cruz.

As a science communicator, Ferland has given popular-leveltalks at the Smithsonian Institution, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History,and numerous clubs, organizations, and classes across the Bluegrass region.

Honors and awards

Ferland was named as American Astronomical Society Fellow in 2021 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.[18] Both cited his development of the Cloudy spectral simulation code. In 2016 he received Catedratico de Excelencia Guillermo Haro from the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, (Tonantzintla, Puebla, Mexico). A Festschrift was held in his honor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City in 2016.[19]

He has received many honorary visiting positions:

Personal life

Ferland was the son of Andrew Joseph Ferland, a career officer in the United States Air Force, and Ida Marie Schneemann. He was raised in Washington D.C., the Panama Canal Zone, Alaska, Florida, and Texas, where he received a BS in Physics with Special Honors in 1972 at the University of Texas.[21]

He married Ann Elizabeth Clemmens (1952-) in 1983. They have two children, Peter Andrew (1987-) and Elizabeth Marie (1989-).

Books

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Gary Ferland . 2023-07-15 . Department of Physics and Astronomy . . en.
  2. Web site: Spectroscopic Observations of Nova V1500 Cygni . 1978PhDT.........3F . 1978 . Ferland . G. J. .
  3. Ferland . G.J. . Rees . M.J. . Longair . M.S. . Perryman . M.C. . Observations of 3C 390.3 with the International Ultraviolet Explorer . MNRAS . 1979 . 187 . 65P-71 . 10.1093/mnras/187.1.65P . free . 1979MNRAS.187P..65F .
  4. Web site: Astronomy Genealogy Project . Astronomy Genealogy Project . AAS . 30 July 2023.
  5. Web site: Gary Ferland's PhD Students . Astronomy Genealogy Project . AAS . 30 July 2023.
  6. Web site: Ferland . Gary . Fellows of the AAS . Fellows of the AAS . AAS . 26 July 2023.
  7. Web site: Ferland . Gary . Gary Ferland at the AAS . List of Past Officers and Trustees of the AAS . AAS . 26 July 2023.
  8. Web site: Ferland . Gary . Elected Fellows of the AAAS . Elected Fellows of the AAAS . AAAS . 26 July 2023.
  9. Web site: Ferland . Gary . Gary Ferland's IAU page . Gary Ferland's IAU page . IAU . 26 July 2023.
  10. Web site: 'Behind the Blue': Peering Deep Into Our Universe With Gary Ferland University of Kentucky Research . 2023-09-16 . www.research.uky.edu.
  11. Peterson . B.M. . Ferland . G.J. . An accretion event in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 5548 . Nature . 1986 . 324 . 6095 . 345–347 . 10.1038/324345a0 . 1986Natur.324..345P . 4268178 . 19 July 2023.
  12. News: Science News of the Year . 19 July 2023 . v130,p400 . Society for Science & the Public . 1986.
  13. https://gitlab.nublado.org/cloudy/cloudy/-/wikis/home
  14. Nature Astronomy . Access Code . Cloudy . Nature Astronomy . 20 August 2023 . 7 . 8 . 1002 . 10.1038/s41550-023-02046-1 . 2023NatAs...7.1002W . 260958052 . 20 August 2023.
  15. Access Code web site . Nature Astronomy Access Code . Nature Astronomy . August 2023 . 7 . 8 . 877 . 10.1038/s41550-023-02066-x . 260958570 . 20 August 2023.
  16. Web site: Publications of Gary Ferland . Publications of Gary Ferland . Astrophysics Data System . 27 July 2023.
  17. Web site: Citations to Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae . Google Scholar list of citations to Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae . Google Scholar . 28 July 2023.
  18. Web site: AAAS Announces Leading Scientists Elected as 2022 Fellows. American Association for the Advancement of Science. en. 2023-07-07.
  19. Web site: Ferland . Gary . Festschrift . Festschrift at . UNAM . 26 July 2023.
  20. Web site: Gary Ferland at Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge . Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge . Cambridge . 15 October 2023.
  21. Web site: 'Behind the Blue': Peering Deep Into Our Universe With Gary Ferland University of Kentucky Research . 2023-09-16 . www.research.uky.edu.