Stanford E. Woosley

Stanford E. " Stan" Woosley ( born December 8, 1944 in Texarkana, Texas) is an American theoretical astrophysicist.

Woosley studied at Rice University (Bachelor 1966) and received his doctorate there in 1971 with Don D. Clayton on Nuclear Astrophysics ( Nucleosynthesis falling on advanced burning states of stars ). As a post-doc, he was at the Kellogg Laboratory at Caltech with William Alfred Fowler, with whom he often collaborated later. From 1975 he was assistant professor, associate professor in 1978 and from 1983 professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz ( UCSC ). From 1983 to 1987, from 1989 to 1991 and 1998 to 2003 he was in charge of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. From 1996 to 1998 he was Alexander von Humboldt Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching. Since 1974 he is a consultant at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

From the 1970s he calculated with Fowler the default values ​​for the nuclear reaction rates used in astrophysics. He studied with X - Burstern, developed the Collapsar model for gamma-ray bursters, and developed computer-based supernova models, examined nucleosynthesis in supernovae and the development of massive stars in the pre- supernova stage ( eight to 50 solar masses ). He is also involved in NASA missions for gamma-ray astronomy.

In 2005 he received the Bruno Rossi Prize and the Hans A. Bethe - Prize. In 2006 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences.