Ken Freeman

Infobox_Scientist
name = Ken Freeman

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image_width = 200px
caption =
birth_date = 1940
birth_place = Perth, Australia
residence = Canberra, Australia
field = Astronomy and Astrophysics
work_institution = Australian National University
alma_mater = University of Western Australia, Cambridge University
advisor = Leon Mestel and Donald Lynden-Bell
known_for = Freeman Law
prizes = Centenary Medal, Australian Government 2003

Ken Freeman is currently Duffield Professor of Astronomy in the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics at Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australian National University in Canberra. He was born in Perth, Australia in 1940, studied mathematics and physics at the University of Western Australia, and graduated with first class honours in applied mathematics in 1962. He then went to Cambridge University for postgraduate work in theoretical astrophysics with Leon Mestel and Donald Lynden-Bell, and completed his doctorate in 1965. Following a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Texas with Gérard de Vaucouleurs, and a research fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, he returned to Australia in 1967 as a Queen Elizabeth Fellow at Mt Stromlo. Apart from a year in the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen in 1976 and some occasional absences overseas, he has been at Mt Stromlo ever since. He married Margaret Cook in 1963. They have four children and eight grandchildren. Outside astronomy, his main interests are family, bushwalking, birdwatching and classical music.

His research interests are in the formation and dynamics of galaxies and globular clusters, and he is particularly interested in the problem of dark matter in galaxies: he was one of the first point out that spiral galaxies contain a large fraction of dark matter. He regularly visits the Space Telescope Science Institute as Distinguished Visiting Scientist.

Appointments and Honours

*1972 Pawsey Medal of the Australian Academy of Science
*1981 Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science
*1990 Aaronson Lecturer at the University of Arizona
*1994 Oort Professor at Leiden University
*1997 Visiting fellow at Merton College Oxford
*1998 Fellow of the Royal Society of London
*1999 Dannie Heineman prize of the American Institute of Physics and the American Astronomical Society
*2001 Tinsley Professor at the University of Texas
*2001 Bishop Lecturer at Columbia University.
*2001 Named by ISI as one of Australia's 35 most highly cited scientists (ranked number 5)
*2001 Gave the Robert Ellery Lecture for the Astronomical Society of Australia
*2002 Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2002
*2003 Blaauw professor at the University of Groningen and he received the
*2003 Centenary Medal from the Australian Government
*2004 Awarded the Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Lecture and Medal at the University of Texas.

He is very interested in graduate students and has acted as primary supervisor for 49 PhD students and seven postdocs. Five of his students have won Hubble Fellowships. He is active in international astronomy, as a division past-president of the International Astronomical Union, and serves on visiting committees for several major astronomical institutions around the world. He has been an invited speaker at 116 international conferences since 1969.

This information is taken from The Dynamics, Structure and History of Galaxies ASP Conference Series, Vol. 273, 2002 (G.S. Da Costa & H. Jerjen, eds)