Spitzer Researcher Named 2007 Scientist of the Year

Dr. David Charbonneau NASA

Written by Linda Vu, Spitzer Science Center
November 13, 2007

Dr. David Charbonneau was named Discover Magazine's "Scientist of the Year" for his work in detecting and characterizing planets around nearby Sun-like stars. His profile appears in the December issue, which hits newsstands on November 13, 2007.

Charbonneau's ground-breaking research has included several unique results from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In 2005, he was one of the first scientists to detect light coming directly from a planet outside of our solar system. Earlier this year, Charbonneau was a member of two teams studying another world, resulting in one of the first infrared spectra, and temperature maps, of an exoplanet.

He is currently a staff scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass.

For more information about these Spitzer exoplanet results see:

• http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2005-09/release.shtml
• http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2007-09/release.shtml
• http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2007-04/release.shtml

Harvard-Smithsonian Press Release:
http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/press/2007/pr200730.html

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