William Nielsen Brandt (born June 10, 1970; also known as Niel Brandt) is a professor in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the Pennsylvania State University. He is best known for his work studying the X-ray properties of active galaxies, X-ray binaries, and other cosmic X-ray sources.
Education
Brandt was born in Durham, North Carolina but mostly grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. He attended Milton High School in Milton, Wisconsin and Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. His undergraduate studies were done at the California Institute of Technology (B.S. 1992), where he was awarded three Carnation Merit Awards, a Barry Goldwater Merit Scholarship, and the George Green Prize for Creative Scholarship. His graduate studies were done at the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Cambridge (Ph.D. 1996; Advisor: Andrew C. Fabian, FRS), where he was supported by an Isaac Newton Studentship and a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship.
Career
From 1996-1997 Brandt held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. In 1997, he took up an assistant professor appointment at the Pennsylvania State University. He was promoted to associate professor in 2001 and full professor in 2003.
Research and Teaching
Brandt uses X-ray satellites, including the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton, to study the physics and evolution of active galaxies, X-ray binaries, and other cosmic X-ray sources. He also performs complementary observations at other wavelengths. Some of his main topics of interest include deep extragalactic X-ray surveys, active-galaxy outflows, active galaxies with high mass-accretion rates, and the first active galaxies to form in the Universe. Brandt is an author of more than 200 research papers on these subjects. He has also worked on investigations of the cosmic microwave background radiation and the effects of neutron-star natal kicks.
Brandt leads an X-ray research group including postdoctoral researchers, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He has mentored 10 postdoctoral researchers, 6 graduate students, and 7 undergraduate students. His postdoctoral researchers and students have gone on to win distinguished fellowships and permanent positions.
Brandt regularly teaches courses on introductory astronomy, high-energy astrophysics, black holes, and active galaxies. He also is actively involved in public outreach, teaching high-school and middle-school teachers about galaxies and cosmology.
Awards
- Carnation Merit Awards of the California Institute of Technology
- Barry Goldwater Merit Scholarship, 1990-1992
- Caltech George Green Prize for Creative Scholarship, 1992
- American Physical Society LeRoy Apker Award finalist, 1992
- Cambridge University Isaac Newton Studentship, 1992-1993
- NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, 1994-1996
- Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, 1999-2004
- NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, 2000-2005
- Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy, 2004