Adam Burrows

Position
Professor of Astrophysical Sciences
Office Phone
Office
105 Peyton
Bio/Description

Adam Burrows is a Full Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, is the Director of the Princeton Planets and Life Certificate Program, and was recently on the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Center for Physics. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Princeton and his Ph.D. in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His primary research interests are supernova theory, exoplanet and brown dwarf theory, planetary atmospheres, computational astrophysics, and nuclear astrophysics. Tools and methodologies developed in support of these studies include numerical hydrodynamics, radiative transfer, nuclear and particle physics, chemistry, molecular spectroscopy, equations of state of exotic matter, and magnetohydrodynamics.

Well-known as a pioneer in the theory of exoplanets, brown dwarfs, and supernovae, he has written numerous fundamental and influential papers and reviews on these subjects during the last ~35 years. He has collaborated with more than 250 co-authors on more than 400 papers and given more than 400 invited talks and colloquia. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the 2010 Beatrice M. Tinsley Centennial Professor, and a former Alfred P. Sloan Fellow. He was the founding Director of Princeton's Planets and Life Certificate Program, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Aspen Center for Physics, and a Fellow of the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science (PCTS).  In addition, he is a past Chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy (BPA) of the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academy of Sciences; was the BPA Liaison to the 2010 Decadal Survey of Astronomy; and has been a consultant for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He has served on the Committee on Astronomy and Astrophysics (CAA) of the NRC; on the NRC Rare Isotope Science Assessment Committee; on the Subcommittee on the Implementation of the DOE Long-Range Plan for Nuclear Physics; as the Chair of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) Advisory Board; as the co-Chair of NASA's Universe Subcommittee; as the Chair of NASA's Origins Subcommittee; as a co-Chair of NASA's Strategic Roadmapping Committee "Search for Earth-like Planets"; as a co-Chair of NASA's Origins/SEUS Roadmapping committee; and as a primary author of NASA 2003 Origins Roadmap. Currently, he serves on the Space Studies Board of the National Research Council of the NAS and on the Physics Policy Committee of the APS.