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”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dr. Forman has over 350 refereed papers (as of February 2020) with over 30.000 citations. A sampling of papers since 2010 is included below. Full list of refereed papers through NASA / ADS.
"Chandra Observations of the Spectacular A3411─12 Merger Event.” 2019. The Astrophysical Journal, 887, 31. Andrade-Santos, et al.
"Runaway merger shocks in galaxy cluster outskirts and radio relics.” 2019. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 488, 5259. Zhang, et al.
"The ALMA Discovery of the Rotating Disk and Fast Outflow of Cold Molecular Gas in NGC 1275.” 2019. The Astrophysical Journal, 883, 193. Nagai, et al.
"Cluster Cosmology Constraints from the 2500 deg2 SPT-SZ Survey: Inclusion of Weak Gravitational Lensing Data from Magellan and the Hubble Space Telescope.” 2019. The Astrophysical Journal, 878, 55. Bocquet, et al.
"Close-up view of an ongoing merger between the NGC 4839 group and the Coma cluster - a post-merger scenario.” 2019. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 485, 2922. Lyskova, et al.
"A New Class of X-Ray Tails of Early-type Galaxies and Subclusters in Galaxy Clusters: Slingshot Tails versus Ram Pressure Stripped Tails.” 2019. The Astrophysical Journal, 874, 112. Sheardown, et al.
"Detection of the Missing Baryons toward the Sightline of H1821+643.” 2019. The Astrophysical Journal, 872, 83. Kovács, et al.
"Standoff distance of bow shocks in galaxy clusters as proxy for Mach number.” 2019. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 482, 20. Zhang, et al.
"Detection of a Star-forming Galaxy in the Center of a Low-mass Galaxy Cluster.” 2018. The Astrophysical Journal, 869, 105. Bogdán, et al.
"Deep Very Large Array Observations of the Merging Cluster CIZA J2242.8+5301: Continuum and Spectral Imaging.” 2018. The Astrophysical Journal, 865, 24. Di Gennaro, et al.
"Recovering galaxy cluster gas density profiles with XMM-Newton and Chandra.” 2017. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 608, A88. Bartalucci, et al.
"Probing the Hot X-Ray Corona around the Massive Spiral Galaxy, NGC 6753, Using Deep XMM-Newton Observations.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 850, 98. Bogdán, et al.
"X-Ray Morphological Analysis of the Planck ESZ Clusters.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 846, 51. Lovisari, et al.
"Partitioning the Outburst Energy of a Low Eddington Accretion Rate AGN at the Center of an Elliptical Galaxy: The Recent 12 Myr History of the Supermassive Black Hole in M87.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 844, 122. Forman, et al.
"The Fraction of Cool-core Clusters in X-Ray versus SZ Samples Using Chandra Observations.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 843, 76. Andrade-Santos, et al.
"The Presence of Thermally Unstable X-Ray Filaments and the Production of Cold Gas in the NGC 5044 Group.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 842, 84. David, et al.
"Chandra and JVLA Observations of HST Frontier Fields Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745.” 2017. The Astrophysical Journal, 835, 197. van Weeren, et al.
"The case for electron re-acceleration at galaxy cluster shocks.” 2017. Nature Astronomy, 1, 0005. van Weeren, et al.
"Arithmetic with X-ray images of galaxy clusters: effective equation of state for small-scale perturbations in the ICM.” 2016. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 463, 1057. Churazov, et al.
"The nature and energetics of AGN-driven perturbations in the hot gas in the Perseus Cluster.” 2016. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 458, 2902. Zhuravleva, et al.
"LOFAR Facet Calibration.” 2016. The Astrophysical Journal, S, 223, 2. van Weeren, et al.
"Frontier Fields Clusters: Deep Chandra Observations of the Complex Merger MACS~J1149.6+2223.” 2016. The Astrophysical Journal, 819, 113. Ogrean, et al.
"LOFAR, VLA, and Chandra Observations of the Toothbrush Galaxy Cluster.” 2016. The Astrophysical Journal, 818, 204. van Weeren, et al.
"On the Nature of X-ray Surface Brightness Fluctuations in M87.” 2016. The Astrophysical Journal, 818, 14. Arévalo, et al.
"The Discovery of Lensed Radio and X-Ray Sources behind the Frontier Fields Cluster MACS J0717.5+3745 with the JVLA and Chandra.” 2016. The Astrophysical Journal, 817, 98. van Weeren, et al.
"Frontier Fields Clusters: Chandra and JVLA View of the Pre-merging Cluster MACS J0416.1-2403.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 812, 153. Ogrean, et al.
"Gas density fluctuations in the Perseus Cluster: clumping factor and velocity power spectrum.” 2015. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 450, 4184. Zhuravleva, et al.
"The galaxy cluster outskirts probed by Chandra.” 2015. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 450, 2261. Morandi, et al.
"Stripped Elliptical Galaxies as Probes of ICM Physics: I. Tails, Wakes, and Flow Patterns in and Around Stripped Ellipticals.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 103. Roediger, et al.
"Stripped Elliptical Galaxies as Probes of ICM Physics: II. Stirred, but Mixed? Viscous and Inviscid Gas Stripping of the Virgo Elliptical M89.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 806, 104. Roediger, et al.
"A Very Deep Chandra Observation of the Galaxy Group NGC 5813: AGN Shocks, Feedback, and Outburst History.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 805, 112. Randall, et al.
"Structures and Components in Galaxy Clusters: Observations and Models.” 2015. Space Science Reviews, 188, 141. Bykov, et al.
"Hot Gaseous Coronae around Spiral Galaxies: Probing the Illustris Simulation.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 804, 72. Bogdán, et al.
"Chandra and XMM-Newton Observations of the Bimodal Planck SZ-Detected Cluster PLCKG345.40-39.34 (A3716) with High and Low Entropy Subcluster Cores.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 803, 108. Andrade-Santos, et al.
"Chandra Deep Observation of XDCP J0044.0-2033, a Massive Galaxy Cluster at z > 1.5.” 2015. The Astrophysical Journal, 799, 93. Tozzi, et al.
"Turbulent heating in galaxy clusters brightest in X-rays.” 2014. Nature, 515, 85. Zhuravleva, et al.
"X-Ray-selected Galaxy Groups in Boötes.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 794, 88. Vajgel, et al.
"Molecular Gas in the X-Ray Bright Group NGC 5044 as Revealed by ALMA.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 792, 94. David, et al.
"A Distant Radio Mini-halo in the Phoenix Galaxy Cluster.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 786, L17. van Weeren, et al.
"Comparison of Galaxy Clusters Selected by Weak-lensing, Optical Spectroscopy, and X-Rays in the Deep Lens Survey F2 Field.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 786, 125. Starikova, et al.
"Tracing the Evolution of Active Galactic Nuclei Host Galaxies over the Last 9 Gyr of Cosmic Time.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 783, 40. Goulding, et al.
"The Discovery of a Radio Halo in PLCK G147.3-16.6 at z = 0.65.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 781, L32. van Weeren, et al.
"A Multi-wavelength Study of the Host Environment of SMBHB 4C+37.11.” 2014. The Astrophysical Journal, 780, 149. Romani, et al.
"Viscous Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities in highly ionized plasmas.” 2013. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 436, 1721. Roediger, et al.
"The Narrow X-Ray Tail and Double Hα Tails of ESO 137-002 in A3627.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 777, 122. Zhang, et al.
"Deep Chandra Observations of A2199: The Interplay between Merger-induced Gas Motions and Nuclear Outbursts in a Cool Core Cluster.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 775, 117. Nulsen, et al.
"Detection of a Luminous Hot X-Ray Corona around the Massive Spiral Galaxy NGC 266.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 772, 98. Bogdán, et al.
"Hot X-Ray Coronae around Massive Spiral Galaxies: A Unique Probe of Structure Formation Models.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 772, 97. Bogdán, et al.
"Complex Diffuse Radio Emission in the Merging Planck ESZ Cluster A3411.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 769, 101. van Weeren, et al.
"Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities at the Sloshing Cold Fronts in the Virgo Cluster as a Measure for the Effective Intracluster Medium Viscosity.” 2013. The Astrophysical Journal, 764, 60. Roediger, et al.
"Contribution of the Accretion Disk, Hot Corona, and Obscuring Torus to the Luminosity of Seyfert Galaxies: INTEGRAL and Spitzer Observations.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 757, 181. Sazonov, et al.
"The Chandra X-Ray Point-source Catalog in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey Fields.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, S, 202, 6. Goulding, et al.
"Chandra Observations of NGC 4342, an Optically Faint, X-Ray Gas-rich Early-type Galaxy.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 755, 25. Bogdán, et al.
"Exploring the Unusually High Black-hole-to-bulge Mass Ratios in NGC 4342 and NGC 4291: The Asynchronous Growth of Bulges and Black Holes.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 753, 140. Bogdán, et al.
"Sloshing Gas in the Core of the Most Luminous Galaxy Cluster RXJ1347.5-1145.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 751, 95. Johnson, et al.
"AGES: The AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, S, 200, 8. Kochanek, et al.
"X-ray surface brightness and gas density fluctuations in the Coma cluster.” 2012. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 421, 1123. Churazov, et al.
"The Universal Gas Mass Fraction in Clusters of Galaxies.” 2012. The Astrophysical Journal, 748, 120. David, et al.
"A wide Chandra view of the core of the Perseus cluster.” 2011. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 418, 2154. Fabian, et al.
"Chandra and ROSAT Observations of A194: Detection of an X-Ray Cavity and Mapping the Dynamics of the Cluster.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 743, 59. Bogdán, et al.
"Deep Chandra Observations of Edges and Bubbles in the NGC 5846 Galaxy Group.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 743, 15. Machacek, et al.
"X-Ray Properties of the First Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Selected Galaxy Cluster Sample from the South Pole Telescope.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 738, 48. Andersson, et al.
"Luminosity function of faint Galactic sources in the Chandra bulge field.” 2011. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 414, 495. Revnivtsev, et al.
"Clustering of Obscured and Unobscured Quasars in the Boötes Field: Placing Rapidly Growing Black Holes in the Cosmic Web.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 731, 117. Hickox, et al.
"X-ray Emission from the Sombrero Galaxy: A Galactic-scale Outflow.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 730, 84. Li, et al.
"Active-galactic-nucleus-driven Weather and Multiphase Gas in the Core of the NGC 5044 Galaxy Group.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 728, 162. David, et al.
"The Pressure Profiles of Hot Gas in Local Galaxy Groups.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 727, L49. Sun, et al.
"The Gas Dynamics of NGC 4472 Revealed by XMM-Newton.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 727, 41. Kraft, et al.
"Shocks and Cavities from Multiple Outbursts in the Galaxy Group NGC 5813: A Window to Active Galactic Nucleus Feedback.” 2011. The Astrophysical Journal, 726, 86. Randall, et al.
"Radio and Deep Chandra Observations of the Disturbed Cool Core Cluster Abell 133.” 2010. The Astrophysical Journal, 722, 825. Randall, et al.
"3C28 in Abell 115- A Radio Source with a Twist.” 2010. X-Ray Astronomy 2009; Present Status, Multi-Wavelength Approach and Future Perspectives, 1248, 273. Forman, et al.
"Metal transport by gas sloshing in M87.” 2010. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 405, 91. Simionescu, et al.
"Interstellar extinction and the distribution of stellar populations in the direction of the ultra-deep Chandra Galactic field.” 2010. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 515, A49. Revnivtsev, et al.
"Comparison of approximately isothermal gravitational potentials of elliptical galaxies based on X-ray and optical data.” 2010. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 404, 1165. Churazov, et al.
"Polarization of X-ray lines from galaxy clusters and elliptical galaxies - a way to measure the tangential component of gas velocity.” 2010. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 403, 129. Zhuravleva, et al.
"Core Gas Sloshing in Abell 1644.” 2010. The Astrophysical Journal, 710, 1776. Johnson, et al.
"Spectacular X-ray Tails, Intracluster Star Formation, and ULXs in A3627.” 2010. The Astrophysical Journal, 708, 946. Sun, et al.
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”