Bio

BIO

William (Bill) Forman is an X-ray astronomer.  He has worked in the field since his PhD (1973) using observations from the Uhuru satelilte, launched 12 December 1970 (the seventh anniversary of Kenyan Independence), from the Italian San Marco launch platform off the coast of Kenya.  He has worked on observations from all subsequent major X-ray missions especially the Einstein Observatory, the ROSAT Observatory, and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.  His primary interests are hot coronae around early-type galaxies, supermassive black hole feedback, and galaxy groups and galaxy clusters, including their implications for cosmology.  Bill was the founding President for Commission X1 Supermassive Black Holes, Feedback and Galaxy Evolution.


Bill grew up in New Rochelle, NY and attended New Rochelle High School.  He obtained an undergraduate degree from Haverford College (1969) with a semester at Sarah Lawrence (spring of junior year, 1968).  At Sarah Lawrence, he studied music/clarinet with Meyer Kupferman, art with Norberto Chiesa, English with William Park, and mathematics with Edward Cogan. He obtained his PhD from Harvard in 1973 in Astronomy with joint advisers William Liller and Edward Kellog. Since 1973, he has worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a member of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. 


CV (PDF CV)

Curriculum Vitae: William R. Forman
High Energy Astrophysics Division | http://hea-www.harvard.edu/
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian
60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Email: wforman@cfa.harvard.edu
Phone: 1-617-495-7210


EDUCATION

1969 B.A., Astronomy-Physics – Haverford College

1970 M.A., Astronomy – Harvard University

1973 Ph.D., Astronomy – Harvard University



APPOINTMENTS & POSITIONS

1969 – 1973 Smithsonian Predoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

1971 Teaching Fellow, Harvard University

1973 – Date Astrophysicist, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

1980 - 1987 Lecturer, Harvard University

1988 – Date Officer, Harvard University

1994 – 1999 Director, Spectrum X Gamma US Coordinating Facility

1991 – 2006 Head, Mission Planning Division, Chandra X-Ray Center

2009 (Jan/Feb) Visiting Professor, Institut d’Astrophysique, Paris

2010 – 2021 Associate Director, High Energy Astrophysics Division, Harvard-Smithsonian CFA

2015 – 2018 Founder/President, IAU Commission C.XI: Supermassive Black Holes, Feedback and Galaxy Evolution


PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

American Astronomical Society, International Astronomical Union

 

 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

2004 – 2009 Reviewer for Priority Program “Galaxy Evolution” of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

2008, 2010 Member, Tinsley Prize Committee, American Astronomical Society (AAS)

2008 – 2011 European Research Council Expert Panel

2012 Chair, Tinsley Prize Committee, American Astronomical Society (AAS)

2017, 2018 Panel Chair/Reviewer, XMM-Newton


PRIZES & HONORS

1979 Bok Prize, Harvard Department of Astronomy

1985 Rossi Prize for “Pioneering work in the study of X-ray emission from early type galaxies”



GRANT & CONTRACT SUPPORT (Current)

GO7-18116X C. Jones 01/01/2017 – 12/31/2020
NASA-CXO – Cycle18
“Probing the Extreme Mass Peaks z>0.7”

 

GO5-16142X W. Forman 03/13/2016 – 12/12/2020
NASA-CXO – Cycle 16
“A First Look at the Most Powerful Radio Relic Cluster”

 

HST-GO-14096.003-A C. Jones 12/01/2015 – 11/30/2020
STSci-HST – Cycle 23
“RELICS: Reionization Lensing Cluster Survey”

 

GO7-18120X C. Jones 09/29/2017 – 09/28/2020
NASA-CXO – Cycle 18
“Nature of Diffuse Radio Emission Discovered by LOFAR in Abell 1931”

 

GO5-16126X C. Jones 08/19/2015 – 08/18/2020
NASA-CXO – Cycle 16
“Low mach number shocks reaccelerating particles in the Intra-cluster Medium”

 

GO5-16133X W. Forman 01/14/2015 – 07/31/2020
NASA-CXO – Cycle 16
“Abell 3411: Confronting the Relic Shock Acceleration Mystery”