Afbeelding
Geoffrey Bower
Currently, Geoff Bower is the director of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope on Hawaii, USA, and he serves as the president of the East Asian Observatory. Prof. Dr. Bower has received numerous awards for his work, including the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and he is an expert in black holes, neutron stars, radio transients, and radio astronomy instrumentation.
Drive discovery
Prof. Dr. Geoffrey Bower is looking forward to starting in his new role: “ASTRON is one of the world’s premier institutions for astronomy. I am very excited to lead ASTRON’s outstanding technical and scientific staff to innovations that will drive discovery for decades to come.”
Prof. Dr. Bower joins ASTRON at an exciting time, as LOFAR2.0 will be coming online next year after a complete upgrade, and SKA-LOW will start science verification activities. He will help contribute to these important changes. Building on his expertise, he will drive the development of new technologies and innovative observing strategies, enabling transformative science and discoveries.
A wealth of experience
Marcel Levi, president of the Board of NWO-I, is pleased with the appointment of Geoff Bower. “Geoff brings a wealth of experience to the table, both in science and technology and as a leader. He has an extensive network in the international astronomy community and knows how to manage observatories with multiple interests and talented staff. Geoff is skilled and motivated to bring long-term success to radio astronomy, as well as to our institute. I look forward to his contribution to our organization his new role as director of ASTRON.”
Background
After his PhD in astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley, Prof. Dr. Bower did his Postdoctoral Fellow at Max Planck Institut fur Radioastronomie and a Jansky Fellow at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Socorro, New Mexico. After returning to Berkeley for his postdoc and working as a researcher and assistant professor, he continued his career based in Hawaii working with the Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Academia Sinica (Taiwan). He served as Project Scientist of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration for over 5 years, guiding the publication of the first images of the Milky Way black hole, Sagittarius A*.