Roger Blandford


Roger David Blandford, FRS, FRAS is a British theoretical astrophysicist, best known for his work on black holes.

Early life

Blandford was born in Grantham, England and grew up in Birmingham.

Career

Blandford is famous in the astrophysical community for the Blandford-Znajek process which is a model for the extraction of energy from a black hole. In April 2005 he wrote a letter to the astronomy community showing his concern about the George W. Bush administration US space science policy.
He is also the chair of Astro2010, the decadal survey that helps define and recommend funding priorities for U.S. astronomy research in the upcoming decade. The Astro2010 report was released August 13, 2010.

Positions

Blandford is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Member of the U.S. National Academy of Science, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is currently Luke Blossom Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, Professor of Physics at Stanford University and at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center National Accelerator Laboratory. He was the Pehong and Adele Chen Director, Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology from 2003 to 2013.

Awards