It is with great pleasure that the Canadian Astronomical Society / Société Canadienne d’Astronomie recognizes and applauds the selection of Dr. Sidney van den Bergh ⎯ Researcher Emeritus at NRC Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, in Victoria, British Columbia ⎯ as a co-recipient of the 2014 Gruber Cosmology Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious awards for astronomy. His co-recipients of the $500,000 award are Profs. Jaan Einasto (Tartu Observatory, Estonia), Kenneth Freeman (Australian National University) and Brent Tully (University of Hawai’i).
Together they are recognized by the Gruber Foundation “…for their pioneering contributions to the understanding of the structure and composition of the nearby Universe.Their work laid the foundations of Near Field Cosmology. They clarified the properties of nearby galaxies — dwarfs, spirals, lenticulars and ellipticals — through studies of their morphology, stellar and gaseous content. The early recognition of the role of dark matter, and of the filamentary clustering of galaxies together with setting the distance scale of galaxies was crucial in setting the cosmological context for our current understanding of the evolution of galaxies and large-scale structure.”
Dr. van den Bergh attended Leiden University, the Netherlands (1947 – 48), transferring on scholarship to receive his A.B. (Physics) from Princeton University in 1950, M.Sc. (Physics) from Ohio State University (1952) and his Dr. rer. nat. (Astronomy) at the University of Göttingen in 1956, followed by appointments at Ohio State University (1956-1958), University of Toronto (1958-1977) and the National Research Council (1978-1998), where he was Director of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory (1978-1986). He became NRC Researcher Emeritus in 1999, a position he holds today.
“Over a career spanning more than six decades, Dr. van den Bergh has made a profound and lasting contribution to our understanding of galaxies.” said Laura Ferrarese, CASCA President. “His vast volume of work on the age and size of the Universe, and on the physical mechanisms underlying the formation and evolution of galaxies, helped lay the foundation of “near field cosmology”. It is a distinct pleasure to see this grounbreaking work recognized by the Gruber Foundation. “
Author of more than 500 refereed publications, there is hardly an area of contemporary astronomy on which Dr. Van den Bergh did not write an important paper. His pioneering research includes: the properties of variable stars and exploding stars and their application as ‘standard candles’ for the extragalactic distance scale; the nature of the oldest stellar populations in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, including their systems of star clusters as tools for unravelling the sequence of events in the formation of galaxies; discovering the first dwarf spheroidal companions of the M31, the Andromeda Nebula; the morphological structure and stellar populations of galaxies as a function of distance and environment; the relationship between dwarf galaxies and more massive systems; and the properties of galaxy clusters in the low-redshift universe.
He also played a pivotal role in Canada’s participation in the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, which became the most influential telescope of its size in the world. As DAO Director he provided exceptionally strong scientific leadership as it began transitioning to become a national centre for Canadian astronomy. He trained 28 students (and a comparable number of postdoctoral scholars) who themselves, and their students, continue to shape Canadian—and international—astronomy to this day.
An Officer of the Order of Canada, Dr. van den Bergh has received numerous honours and awards, including CASCA’s Beals Prize, the NRC President’s Medal for Science, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada , AAS Russell Lecturer, Canada Council Killam Prize, Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s Bruce Gold Medal, and election to the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame.
CASCA congratulates Dr. van den Bergh for this well earned recognition of his outstanding contributions to cosmology and to Canadian scientific excellence.
The Gruber Cosmology Prize honours a leading cosmologist, astronomer, astrophysicist or scientific philosopher for theoretical, analytical, conceptual or observational discoveries leading to fundamental advances in our understanding of the universe. Media materials and additional background information on the Gruber Prizes can be found at: http://gruber.yale.edu/news-media
CASCA Contacts:
Leslie Sage
CASCA Press Officer
+1 (301) 675 8957
cascapressofficer@gmail.com
Laura Ferrarese
CASCA President
casca-president@casca.ca
Sidney van den Bergh
Sidney.vandenBergh@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
+1 (250) 656-6020