Rashid Sunyaev

Infobox_Scientist
name = Rashid Sunyaev


caption =
birth_date = birth date and age|1943|3|1|df=yes
birth_place = Tashkent, Uzbek SSR
death_date =
death_place =
residence =
nationality =
field = Astronomer
work_institution = Russian Academy of Sciences, Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Cosmic microwave background radiation
societies =
prizes = Heineman Prize (2003),
Crafoord Prize (2008)
religion =
footnotes =

Rashid Alievich Sunyaev (Cyrillic: Рашид Алиевич Сюняев, which might be more phonetically transliterated "Syunyayev") was born in Tashkent, Uzbek SSR, on March 1, 1943 to a Tatar family, and educated at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MS) and Moscow State University (Ph.D). He became a professor at MIPT in 1974. Sunyaev is the head of the High Energy Astrophysics Department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and has been chief scientist of the Academy's Space Research Institute since 1992. He is also Director at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Garching, Germany since 1996.

With Yakov B. Zel'dovich, at the Moscow Institute of Applied Mathematics, he proposed what is known as the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect, which is due to electrons associated with gas in galaxy clusters scattering the cosmic microwave background radiation. [cite journal|author=Sunyaev RA, Zel'dovich YB|title=The interaction of matter and radiation in a hot-model universe|journal=Astrophys. Space Sci.|volume=4|issue=3|pages=301–16|year=1969|doi=10.1007/BF00661821] [cite journal|author=Sunyaev RA, Zel'dovich YB|title=Small-scale fluctuations of relic radiation|journal=Astrophys. Space Sci.|volume=7|issue=1|pages=3–19|year=1970|url=http://www.springerlink.com/content/t2w47w0722266lt3] [cite journal|author=Sunyaev RA, Zel'dovich YB|title=The observations of relic radiation as a test of the nature of X-ray radiation from the clusters of galaxies|journal=Comm. Astrophys. Space Phys.|volume=4|issue=|pages=173|year=1972|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1972ComAp...4..173S] [cite journal|author=Sunyaev RA, Zel'dovich YB|title=Microwave background radiation as a probe of the contemporary structure and history of the universe|journal=Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.|volume=18|pages=537–60|year=1980|doi= 10.1146/annurev.aa.18.090180.002541]

Sunyaev and Nikolay I. Shakura developed a model of accretion onto black holes, from a disk [cite journal |author=Shakura NI, Syunyaev RA|title=Black holes in binary systems. Observational appearance|journal=Astron. Astrophys.|volume=24|pages=337–55|year=1973|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1973A&A....24..337S] , and he has proposed a signature for X-radiation from matter spiraling into a black hole. He has collaborated in important studies of the early universe, including the recombination of hydrogen and the formation of the cosmic microwave background radiation. He led the team which built and operated the X-ray observatory attached to the Kvant-1 module of the Mir space station and also the GRANAT orbiting X-ray observatory. Kvant made the first detection of X-rays from a supernova in 1987. His team is currently preparing the Spectrum-X-Gamma International International Astrophysical Project, and at Garching he is working on two experiments on the forthcoming ESA Planck mission.

Honors and Awards

* Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1984
* Bruno Rossi Prize in 1988 for his contributions to understanding cosmic X-ray sources, especially the structure of accretion disks around black holes, the X-ray spectra of compact objects, and the Mir- based discovery of hard X-ray emission from supernovae 1987A [ [http://www.aas.org/head/rossi/rossi.recip.html#D HEAD AAS Rossi Prize Winners] ]
* Member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 1991
* Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1995 [ [http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=268 Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society] ]
* Bruce Medal in 2000 for a lifetime of outstanding research in astronomy [ [http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/BruceMedalists/Sunyaev/index.html 2000 Bruce Medalist] ] [ [http://www.astrosociety.org/membership/awards/00winners.html 2000 ASP Annual Award Winners] ]
* State Award of Russian Federation in 2000 for research of Black Holes and Neutron stars with GRANAT X-ray and gamma-ray astrophysical observatory in 1990-1998 [http://www.iki.rssi.ru/awardspr.htm Awards and best publications] . ICR RAS]
* Alexander Friedman Prize by Russian Academy of Sciences in 2002 for the publications on the reduction of magnitude of cosmic microwave background radiation in the direction of clusters of galaxies
* Heineman Prize in 2003 for outstanding work in astrophysics [ [http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.php#heineman Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics] ]
* Gruber Prize in Cosmology in 2003 for pioneering studies on the nature of the cosmic microwave background and its interaction with intervening matter that led to new cosmological models [ [http://www.gruberprizes.org/GruberPrizes/Cosmology_LaureateOverview.php?awardid=22 2003 Gruber Cosmology Prize] ]
* Crafoord Prize in 2008 for decisive contributions to high-energy astrophysics and cosmology. [ [http://www.crafoordprize.se/press/arkivpressreleases/thecrafoordprizeinmathematicsandastronomy2008.5.744b7eb1172d57470a800015327.html The Crafoord Prize in Mathematics and Astronomy 2008] ]
* Henry Norris Russell Lectureship in 2008 [ [http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.php#russell Henry Norris Russell Lectureship] ]
* Karl Schwarzschild Medal of the German Astronomische Gesellschaft in 2008. [cite web | url = http://www.astronomische-gesellschaft.org/Auszeichnungen/Schwarzschild_eng.html | title = Recipients of the Karl Schwarzschild Medal | accessdate=2008-09-24]

References

External links

* [http://www.ras.ru/win/db/show_per.asp?P=.id-331.ln-en Syunyaev Rashid Alievich] . Site of Russian Academy of Sciences
* [http://www.antat.ru/cgi-bin/main.pl?p=acad_810 Biography] at the website of Tatarstan Academy of Sciences