Hartigan earns Duncan Award

Hartigan
earns Duncan Award
…………………………………………………………………

BY JENNIFER
EVANS
Rice News Staff

Patrick Hartigan has had a stellar
career. An associate professor of physics and astronomy, he makes important
contributions to the study of stars and their formation, earns praise from students
and colleagues for sparking enthusiasm for astronomy and is characterized as
one of the brightest astrophysicists of his generation. For this and more, Hartigan
has been honored with the 2001

.

“He studies
the formation of stars, and he himself is a forming star,”
said Kathy Matthews, dean of the Wiess School of Natural
Sciences. “He is on a wonderful trajectory to the future
and is most deserving of this award.”

The Duncan Award,
presented to tenure-track or tenured members of the Rice
faculty with 10 or fewer years of experience, recognizes
outstanding performance in scholarship and teaching. Named
after the former chairman of the Rice Board of Governors,
Charles Duncan, the award was established in 1998, and its
recipients are determined by President Malcolm Gillis upon
recommendations of the Dean’s Council.

Hartigan came
to Rice in 1994. His research has brought him and Rice national
and international attention, according to a letter nominating
him for the award.

F. Barry Dunning,
the Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy
and chair of the department of physics and astronomy, wrote,
“He has been remarkably successful at Rice, given that
we have no research telescopes of our own and that to get
observing time on instruments at the National Observatory
or the Hubble Space telescopes requires surviving a tough
peer-review process. The fact that he has consistently been
successful in obtaining observing time at these facilities
provides a measure of his strength.”

Dunning also
noted that Hartigan’s important contributions to areas
of astronomy and astrophysics were recognized by his invitation
to participate in a prestigious international symposium
that has been held only four times in the last 25 years
and to write a chapter for “Protostars and Planets
IV,” a textbook and status report of every facet of
research into the formation of stars and planets.

Hartigan, who
received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona, said
that as far back as high school he imagined that he would
be a scientist, but he hadn’t thought about a career
in academia until he was a teaching assistant at the University
of Minnesota, where he earned his bachelor’s degree.
“It was fun to take students who thought they had no
interest in the subject and get them excited about astronomy,”
he said.

Student evaluations
of his courses consistently praise Hartigan for his teaching
style.

“Dr. Hartigan
is one of those few instructors who can connect with students
without making them feel lost,” wrote one student.
“He obviously loves the subject rather than seeming
burdened with the task of teaching concepts that are very
elementary to him. He challenges us and demands learning,
not rote memorization of constants,” another wrote.

In addition
to his teaching and research, Hartigan is an active participant
on campus and in the community, serving on the Admissions
Committee, acting as a faculty associate at Will Rice College,
visiting area schools to talk about astronomy and organizing
public outreach activities for events such as solar and
lunar eclipses.

“The Duncan
Award honors excellence in both teaching and research, and
he is outstanding in both arenas,” Matthews commented.