Media Releases

Dunlap Institute announces new director, astronomer Prof. Bryan Gaensler

June 11, 2014

TORONTO, ON — After an inter­na­tion­al search, the Dun­lap Insti­tute for Astron­o­my & Astro­physics, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, announces the appoint­ment of its new direc­tor, Prof. Bryan Gaensler, a lead­ing inter­na­tion­al researcher in cos­mic mag­net­ism, super­no­va explo­sions and inter­stel­lar gas.

Gaensler comes to the Dun­lap Insti­tute from the Aus­tralian Research Coun­cil Cen­tre of Excel­lence for All-sky Astro­physics (CAASTRO) where he is the found­ing direc­tor. He is also an Aus­tralian Lau­re­ate Fel­low at the Syd­ney Insti­tute for Astron­o­my with­in the School of Physics at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Syd­ney.

“I am thrilled to be tak­ing up the direc­tor­ship,” says Gaensler. “The Dun­lap is an insti­tute with unique capac­i­ties and enor­mous poten­tial. I’m excit­ed by the prospect of devel­op­ing new and inno­v­a­tive approach­es to instru­men­ta­tion, and com­bin­ing this with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to’s already impres­sive cre­den­tials in astron­o­my and astro­physics.”

For the past decade, Gaensler has made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to build­ing long-term research capac­i­ty for obser­va­tion­al astron­o­my. Much of that effort has been in the devel­op­ment and plan­ning of the Square Kilo­me­tre Array which, when com­plet­ed in twin loca­tions in South Africa and Aus­tralia, will be the largest radio tele­scope ever built and will help answer ques­tions about the very ear­ly Uni­verse and how it evolved into the cos­mos we see today.

“I want to under­stand why the Uni­verse is mag­net­ic,” says Gaensler, “and I aim to use explo­sions, flash­es and flares through­out the cos­mos as a unique probe of fun­da­men­tal physics. The Dun­lap Insti­tute is the ide­al envi­ron­ment for me to pur­sue these pro­grams, because of its focus on ground­break­ing instru­men­ta­tion and on unique ways of study­ing the sky. I look for­ward to the chance to begin work­ing with Toron­to stu­dents on these projects.”

For the com­plete press release, pho­tographs and inter­view con­tact infor­ma­tion:

http://dunlap.utoronto.ca/downloads‑2/
pass­word: Dun­lapDir

For more infor­ma­tion:

Chris Sasa­ki
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coor­di­na­tor
Dun­lap Insti­tute for Astron­o­my & Astro­physics
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
50 St. George Street
Toron­to, ON M5S 3H4
416–978-6613