Press Release

NAS RA V. Ambartsumian Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory (BAO)
Press release 13.09.2023

VAHE PETROSIAN’S 85TH ANNIVERSARY

Vahe Petrosian, one of the outstanding Armenian-American astronomers, was born on September 13, 1938 in Iran. He is a Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University.

Prof. Petrosian’s main fields of scientific interests are theoretical astrophysics with concentration on high energy astrophysical processes in solar and stellar flares, gamma-ray bursts, accretion disks of stellar and active galactic black holes and clusters of galaxies, and in cosmology; early phase of the universe, the evolution of galaxies and quasars, arcs in clusters of galaxies, and gravitational lensing. His research interests have been in two broad areas of high energy astrophysics and cosmology. The former area includes studies of acceleration, transport and radiation of non-thermal particles, developed primarily for application to solar flares. These works have also found application in a variety of other astrophysical sources including accretion disks, Gamma-ray bursts and Clusters of Galaxies.

His work in cosmology is focused on evolution of galaxies and quasars (and AGNs in general), and in luminous arcs in clusters of galaxies (of which he is a co-discoverer: R. Lynds & V. Petrosian, 1989, "Luminous Arcs in Clusters of Galaxies", ApJ, 336) and gravitational lensing. Another interest has been in the area of statistical methods relevant to analysis of astronomical data. This work is carried out in collaboration with B. Efron of the Statistics Department at Stanford has been concentrated on development of new non-parametric methods for determination of distribution of astronomical sources from truncated data.

Prof. Petrosian has published more than 250 scientific papers on several subjects, including Gamma-Ray Burst, quasars and AGN, Solar flares, statistical methods, and others. He had more than 30 thesis undergraduate and graduate students and 7 postdoctoral associates since 1973.

Prof. Petrosian was awarded the Iranian National Fellowship (1958-62), the Industrial Fellowship, Cornell University (1963-64), and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship (1972-74). He is a member of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS), International Astronomical Union (IAU), American Astronomical Society (AAS), Eta Kappa Nu, and Tau Beta Pi. He joined the Armenian Astronomical Society in April 2007.

Meline Asryan