Glenn White
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Glenn J. White is currently Professor of Astronomy at the Open University, UK, and Research Group Leader of the Astronomy Group at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. He currently carries out research on star formation and on Exoplanets.
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[edit] Scientific Career
After studying Radio Astronomy at Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester and at The University of Kent (1969-1972), he worked for a short period in X-ray Astronomy at the University of Leicester, before joining Queen Mary College, University of London in 1976. He was Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of London (1993-2000), Professor of Space Science at the University of Kent (2000-2005), and is currently Professor of Astronomy at the Open University, a post held jointly with The Rutherford Appleton Laboratory since 2005. He has also held visiting positions at The University of Tokyo (1987), University of Stockholm (1998) and University of Cambridge (1999). He was involved in the early development of astronomical millimetre and submillimetre wavelength astronomy in the 1970s and 80s.
He is currently working on problems in star formation and submillimeter wavelength spectroscopy studies of the gas that forms stars, and has also studied the interaction of radio signals with plants and biological material. He is currently developing space missions to detect the atmospheres of Earth-like extrasolar planets, such as the European Space Agency's DARWIN Mission, and the Japanese Space Agency's [AKARI] mission, which was successfully launched in February 2006. The [DARWIN] mission consists of a flotilla of spacecraft which aim to measure the atmospheric composition of nearby extrasolar planets, and the properties of the material in the galactic interstellar medium. DARWIN is likely to be launched by the [European Space Agency] around 2020.
[edit] Awards
The Kelvin Lectureship in Physics, of The British Association, 1991 (awarded for Popularisation of Science)
DAIWA-ADRIAN Prize, 2004 (Co-holder for work on the Japanese AKARI Space mission) [Link]
[edit] Music Career
Before starting his career in Astronomy, he was a professional musician working in the German-based pop group Blaze during 1969, and susequently played in the progressive UK Rock Groups Wraith and Echelon [Blaze].
