Edward L. Wright

Edward L. (Ned) Wright is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist, well known for his achievements in the COBE project and as a strong Big Bang proponent in web tutorials on cosmology and theory of relativity.

Wright received his ABscl (Physics in 1969) and PhD (Astronomy in 1976) degrees from Harvard University, where he was a Junior Fellow. After teaching in the MIT Physics Department for a while, Wright has been a Professor at UCLA since 1981.^[1]

Wright takes an interest in infrared astronomy and cosmology. He has studied fractal dust grains which are able to absorb and emit efficiently at millimeter wavelengths, and other aspects that may be important factors in drawing secrets from the cosmic microwave background. As an interdisciplinary scientist on the Space InfraRed Telescope Facility (SIRTF) Science Working Group,^[2] Wright has worked on the SIRTF project (renamed the Spitzer Space Telescope) since 1976. He was an active member of the teams working on the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) since 1978. He is the principal investigator of the Wide field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Midex project.^[3] Prof. Wright is also a member of the current science team on the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which was launched in June 2001. WMAP is a mission to follow-up the COBE discovery of early fluctuations in the developing Universe.

From 1994-1998, he served as a Science Editor of The Astrophysical Journal.

Awards

• NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his work on COBE, in 1992.^[4]
• Named the CSEOL Distinguished Scientist of the Year, in 1995.

References

1. ^ "Ned Wright's web page at UCLA". http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/intro.html. 
2. ^ "SIRTF Profiles: Ned Wright". Archived from the original on 2006-06-23. http://web.archive.org/web/20060623092949/http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/features/p_nedwright.shtml. Retrieved 2010-01-26. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "WISE: Mission Overview". NASA. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/WISE/mission/index.html. Retrieved 2010-01-26. 
4. ^ "NASA's Beyond Einstein Program: An Architecture for Implementation". National Academies Press. p. 172. ISBN 978-0-309-11162-1. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12006&page=172. 

External links

• Edward L. (Ned) Wright's Home Page
• Wright on COBE in ”in-cites” (Nov 2001)
• UCLA news on NASA-contract for Wright (Oct 2006)

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