The University awarded the Antoinette de Vaucouleurs Medal for a lifetime of dedication and achievement in astronomy to astrophysicist Ken Freeman on Monday.
Freeman's work in observational astronomy, which he began as a W.J. McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow at the University in the late '60s, has been said to have done some of the most groundbreaking work in its field.
"Every paper that I have written references his work," said UT graduate student Eva Noyola. "He was never afraid to go into a new field and gain the knowledge required to advance his research. Galaxy formation requires a vast amount of observations in very different wavelengths."
The product of Freeman's research has become the template by which modern simulations of galaxy formation are compared to determine their viability.
"His groundbreaking work laid the foundations of how to observe and measure a galaxy" said to Karl Gebhardt, associate professor of astronomy.
The observational foundations of astronomy have been the focus of Freeman's research since his days at the University. Most theoretical work dealing with spiral galaxy formation today is in some way dependent upon his observational discoveries.
"I was a theoretician before I came to UT, and I came specifically to work with the Vaucouleurs on observational things ... at the time the theory was in a pretty rudimentary state - we didn't have the computer simulations that we have now which are very, very important to us," he said.
Aside from his renown as a groundbreaking astrophysicist, Freeman is also well known for his commitment to his role as an educator, Noyola said.
"Its very encouraging to see someone who was making such important contributions to science also took the time to form new scientists throughout his career," she said. "He has had 45 graduate students. That's quite impressive, and you would be impressed to see how many of them have become very well recognized people [in the field]."
Honoring the occasion, Freeman delivered the second of two lectures at the University entitled "Globular Clusters-Cannonballs of the Cosmos" at 4 p.m. on Tuesday evening at the UTC to an audience of about 75 students, teachers and novice astronomers.
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