NORBERT BARTEL, Ph.D. Distinguished Research Professor Department of Physics and Astronomy York University, Toronto 416-736-5424, [email protected], www.yorku.ca/bartel EMPLOYMENT HISTORY: 1992- Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, Canada 1986-1992 Lecturer. Astronomy, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. 1983-1992 Research Associate at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. 1980-1982 Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A. 1978-1980 Research Scientist, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany HONOURS and TITLES: 1979 Otto Hahn Medal, Max-Planck Society, Federal Republic of Germany 2006 Distinguished Research Professor, York University, Toronto, Canada 2015 Established Research Award, Faculty of Science, York University, Toronto, Canada DEGREES: 1978 Ph.D., Physics/Astronomy University of Bonn and Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany 1975 M.Sc., Diplom in Physics Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae University of Bonn and Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie Bonn, Federal Republic of Germany 1972 B.Sc., Vordiplom in Physics University of Hamburg, Federal Republic of Germany - 2 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES: Member of the Astronomische Gesellschaft (AG) Member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) Member of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI Commission J) Member of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) RESEARCH AREAS: Radio astronomy and astrometry, observational tests of general relativity My research is focussed on galactic and extragalactic compact radio sources such as supernovae, pulsars, black hole candidates, radio stars and the cores of radio galaxies and quasars. With the technique of very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) we image these sources and determine their positions, proper motions and kinematics with an angular resolution and precision 1,000 times better than with optical telescopes on Earth. In particular, we make sequences of images of young, rapidly expanding supernovae, study the interaction of their shock fronts with the circumstellar medium, search for pulsars and black holes in their centres and compose the results in a “movie of an exploding star.” As a spin-off, we obtain vital information for determining the distance to the host galaxy and the extragalactic distance scale. Also, we investigate the jets of energetic particles emanating from the active centers of superluminal radio galaxies and quasars. These jets have relativistic speeds, which appear on the sky to be faster than the speed of light. Our studies help to understand the physics of the immediate environment of the active centers, which are believed to be supermassive black holes. I am a Board member of the International Steering Committee of the Russian-led space VLBI mission “RadioAstron.” The main part of the mission is a 10-m diameter radio telescope the larges telescope ever in space. It is in a highly eccentric orbit around Earth with an apogee height of about 350,000 km. This mission extends the technique of VLBI into space providing a further improvement in the angular resolution power for observations of black hole environments and pulsars. We also use this mission is for an accurate measurement of the gravitational redshift, potentially the most accurate ever for testing the equivalence principle and general relativity. I have been involved in the support of the US$ 750M space-borne Gravity Probe B GP- B) mission developed by NASA and Stanford University, whose goal was to monitor the - 3 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae precessions of on-board gyroscopes with respect to a bright guide star to test two predictions of general relativity, the geodesic effect and frame dragging. The former is caused by the bending of space-time due to a massive body like the Earth and the latter is caused by the warping of space-time due to the rotation of a massive body like the Earth around its axis. Frame dragging could be fundamentally responsible for the physical phenomena near supermassive black holes seen in the most powerful sources of the universe, quasars and other centers of active galactic nuclei. The experiment is considered to be the most difficult ever conducted in space. Together with I. Shapiro (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) I was the Co-PI for the VLBI project to determined the proper motion of the GP-B guide star with respect to distant quasars. This determination was necessary for the experiment so that the precessions could be referred to the (quasi) inertial extragalactic reference frame and to the distant universe. The mission came to a successful conclusion in 2011. Frame dragging was confirmed to exist. SCHOLARLY AND PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES: UNIVERSITY SERVICE: Department of Physics and Astronomy 1993 Seminar series organizer 1993-- Member and/or chair of various committees, such as curriculum committee, tenure and promotion committee, search committee for a new chair of the department, recruitment and retention committee, occasionally Acting Chair 1995-2005 Coordinator of the Space and Communication Sciences (SCS) Programme 1995-2005 Executive Committee Faculty of Science: 1994-- Member of one Committee per year 1995-2002 Faculty Advisor for the SEDS club (Students for the Exploration and - 4 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae Development of Space) 1995-1998 Design and construction of an antenna lab for satellite communications and ham radio. NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES: 1980 IAU Symposium No. 95, Pulsars, member of Local Organizing Committee 1984 Workshop, Supernovae as Distance Indicators, organizer and co-chair 1987 IAU Symposium No. 129, The Impact of VLBI on Astrophysics and Geophysics, member of the Local Organizing Committee 1989 Advisory activity for the DLR (German Aerospace Research Establishment), Division of Radio Frequency Technology 1990-- Member of the Science Objective Group (SOC) of the Soviet space VLBI project RADIOASTRON 1990 Representative of NASA at the conference on "Propagation Effects in Space VLBI,” Leningrad, USSR, May 28-30 1992-- Member of the Special Study Group 2.109 of the International Association of Geodesy, "Application of Space VLBI in the Field of Astrometry and Geodynamics" 1992-2001 Member of the Managing Group for the Algonquin Space Complex (formerly Algonquin Radio Observatory) 1997-2000 Member of the Radio Astronomy Subcommittee of the Canadian Astronomical Society (CASCA) 1997-2001 Member of the CASCA Space Astronomy Committee (JSSA) 1997-2000 Chair, CASCA Radio Astronomy Committee 1998--2005 Member of the VSOP (Space VLBI) Science Review Committee - 5 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae 2002--2005 Member of the Square-Kilometer-Array (SKA) Steering Committee in Canada 2002-2005 Member of the John Charles Polanyi Prizes Selection Committee 2004-2005 CAP Lecturer (CAP:Canadian Association of Physicists), invited speaker at Canadian Universities, topic: Testing Einstein’s Universe 2005-- 2012 Chair, Canadian Square-Kilometer-Array (SKA) Science Advisory Committee 2005--2014 Board member of the Canadian Square-Kilometer-Array (SKA) Consortium 2008-- Member of International Steering Committee for the Russian-led spacecraft mission RadioAstron 2010--2014 Member, Australian-led VLBI ASKAP SKA pathfinder survey project 2012-- Co-Chair, Gravity Working Group of the RadioAstron mission 2015-- Member, ACURA Advisory Council on the SKA (AACS) 2015-- Associate member, SKA focus group -VLBI working group SUPERVISORY ACTIVITIES Senior Research Associate: 1993-- Michael Bietenholz (Ph.D.) York University (part-time), also Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomical Observatory, South Africa (part-time position as research scientist). He worked on the guide star for the Gravity Probe B mission, and continues to work on VLBI research of pulsars, supernovae and the cores of radio galaxies and quasars. He is an independent research scientist and helps to supervise graduate students and visitors in my group. He is also computer system administrator of the group. - 6 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae Research Associate: 2004 Alexander Novikov York University Graduate of the Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia He worked on the search of pulsed emission from SN 1986J using the S2 baseband recording system. He is now lab supervisor for engineering students at York. Postdoctoral Fellows: 2003-- 2006 Ryan R. Ransom York University Graduate of York University, 2003 Research Area: VLBI Investigations of the guide star, IM Pegasi, of the Gravity Probe B mission. 2005 Vladislav Kondratiev York University Graduate of the Lebedev Physical Institute, Moscow, Russia He works on pulsar emission mechanisms and on the timing of pulsars using the Canadian S2 tape-based VLBI recording system and the MK5 disk-based VLBI recording system. Visiting Scientist: 1994-1995 Alexandre Andrei (Ph.D.) York University Graduate of University of Cambridge, England, 1989 Head of the Astrolabe Group of the National Observatory, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Research area: Radio and optical astrometric reference frames Project Scientist - Consultant: 1994-1997 Rongshi Pan (Ph.D.) York University Graduate of Shanghai Observatory, 1981 - 7 - - Norbert Bartel Curriculum Vitae Associate Professor, Shanghai Observatory (till 1991) Project Scientist/Consultant Research area: General Relativity, astrometric reference