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Hendrik Spruit wins Hale Prize for solar physics
The Solar Physics Division of the American Astronomical Society has
announced that in 2011 the award of its highest honor, the George Ellery
Hale Prize for achievement in solar physics, will go to Hendrik Spruit,
senior scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. With this
award, the SPD recognizes his "insightful and pioneering work on the
structure of magnetic flux tubes and sunspots and on their interaction with
the flow of energy in the solar convection zone."
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Hendrik Spruit (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics)
© H-A Arnolds, MPA
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The prize recognises work which started with Spruit's thesis at the
University of Utrecht. At the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics he has
worked on X-ray binaries, gamma-ray bursts and magnetic fields in stars.
Recently he has returned to solar physics with work on the structure of
sunspots.
The AAS awards the prize annually to a scientist for outstanding
contributions to the field of solar astronomy. It is named after the
American astronomer George Ellery Hale (1868-1938), who discovered (in 1908)
that sunspots are the seat of strong magnetic fields. He was also the
driving force behind the construction of ever larger telescopes including
the famous 200" telescope on Mount Palomar, until 1975 the world's largest
telescope.
The award ceremony will take place in May at the spring meeting of the
American Astronomical Society in Boston.
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