Potted Biography: R. D. Joseph

Bob Joseph is an Astronomer in the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), UH Manoa. He has been at UH 19 years. Before coming to Hawaii he was Reader in Astrophysics at Imperial College, University of London, where he was on the faculty for almost 20 years. He served as Director of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea for the years 1989-2000, and was recently awarded the NASA Public Service Medal ''for outstanding leadership while serving as Director.'' He was IfA Faculty Chair from 2002-2005. Asteroid 7159 has been named “Bobjoseph” by the International Astronomical Union.

Joseph received his B.A. degree from Greenvillle College (IL), M.A. from Vanderbilt University (TN), and Ph.D in physics from Washington University (MO).

His research interests are in extragalactic astronomy. He chiefly uses infrared light (wavelengths between visible light and radio waves). One of his major research interests over the past 25 years is the effects of collisions between galaxies. One result of such collisions is the formation of a new generation of stars, including those that are very massive and burn themselves out in a few million years (very quickly compared to the lifetimes of most stars). These massive stars are extremely luminous and therefore the galaxy lights up when such a burst of star formation occurs. Joseph & collaborators were the first to argue that mergers of spirals produce the most luminous infrared-bright galaxies and that the luminosity is powered by a massive burst of star formation. He has been a pioneer in developing extragalactic infrared spectroscopy. Using such diagnostic tools he and his collaborators have shown that such violent bursts of star formation seem not to produce as many low-mass, solar-type stars, or as many very massive stars as are produced in the more quiescent star formation processes occurring in the solar neighborhood. Another consequence of collisions between spiral galaxies is that they can merge and coalesce into a single new object, and he and his collaborators have shown such mergers of spiral galaxies are producing elliptical galaxies.

Joseph was one of a group of a dozen European astronomers who first proposed the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) as a space astronomy mission to the European Space Agency in 1979. ISO was launched in 1995 and was very successful; over 1,000 scientific papers based on ISO data have now been published. Joseph was a Co-Investigator on the ISOPHOT instrument, and the prototype of the ISOPHOT-S 2.5-12 µm spectrometer was developed in his lab at Imperial College. Joseph was one of the proposers to the European Space Agency for the Far-Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope (FIRST). This mission has now been re-named Herschel, and is expected to be launched ca. 2009.

Courses lectured at the University of Hawaii in recent years have included the general education survey of astronomy, the graduate course in cosmology, and a graduate seminar on starbursts in galaxies. Joseph is also a volunteer at the women’s prison where he gives a year-long course on astronomy. Joseph and colleague Dr. Toni Cowie have developed a new upper division course, “History of the Cosmos in Western Culture,” which has been given the past two years.

Joseph has had 15 graduate students complete Ph.D. degrees under his supervision. Most are in academic or research positions in the U.S. and the U.K.

Joseph has served on many national and international science committees, including the Science Council for the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), the Gemini Observatory International Science Committee (most recently as Chair), the Visiting Committee for the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatories, and the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society. He has served on many proposal review panels, including those for the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. He is on the Board of the U.K. Infrared Telescope and on the editorial board of the journal Contemporary Physics.

Music is one of Joseph's avocations. In addition to much listening, he sings baritone in the Honolulu Symphony Chorus and in the choir at Calvary-By-The-Sea Lutheran Church. Performances in recent years have included the Mahler 2^nd Symphony, the Verdi Requiem, the Mendelssohn Elijah, the Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, the Durufle Requiem, the Mozart Mass in C, the Brahms German Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, the Haydn Creation, the Rutter Gloria, and Mass of the Children, the Faure Requiem, the Beethoven 9^th Symphony, and the Mozart Requiem.