Emeriti Faculty

Steven Beckwith

B.S. in Engineering Physics (with honors), Cornell University 1973
Ph.D. in Physics, California Institute of Technology 1978 -Professor of the Graduate School, Emeritus

Office:
501Q Campbell Hall

Contact:
E:steven.beckwith@berkeley.edu
P:+1-415-230-0335

Download Steven’s CV (as a pdf)

Files:

Publications

Specialty areas

Cosmology,Origins of life,Planet formation,Star formation.

Research Interests

Professor Beckwith is interested in nature’s leap from chemistry to biology on the prebiotic Earth and how an understanding of that leap will let us infer the likelihood that life has developed elsewhere in the universe. He is investigating how non-equilibrium thermodynamic processes on a small scale may give rise to chemical reaction networks that will become self-sustaining and ultimately evolve into the life we see on Earth today.

Biography

Professor Beckwith is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He has served as Director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie (Heidelberg, Germany), the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (Baltimore, Maryland), and most recently as the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies for the ten-campus University of California system (Oakland, California). He has been on the faculties of Cornell University (Professor of Astronomy) and Johns Hopkins University (Professor of Physics and Astronomy) prior to coming to Berkeley in 2008.

Projects

The Gemini Planet Imager Exoplanet Survey

Lead:Paul Kalas, James Graham

The Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) is an advanced science instrument that exploits the latest generation of adaptive optics technology, coronagraphy and detectors. We commissioned GPI at the Gemini South telescope in Chile in 2014 and finished a five-year survey for exoplanets called GPIES (GPI Exoplanet Survey). Among the many discoveries were the planet 51 Eri b and many dusty debris disks, published in over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts. GPI will be upgraded and installed on Gemini North in Hawaii in 2025.