Fermi Team Wins Top High-Energy Prize

The 2011 Rossi Prize has been awarded to two scientists and the team of the Large Area Telescope on board the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. The prize was given for new insights into neutron stars, supernova remnants, cosmic rays, binary systems, active galactic nuclei, and gamma-ray bursts that their work enabled.

The two scientists named in the Rossi Prize were Peter Michelson of Stanford University and Bill Atwood of the University of California at Santa Cruz whose partnership resulted in conceiving and developing the LAT.

The AAS High Energy Astrophysics Division (HEAD) awards the Rossi Prize in recognition of significant contributions as well as recent and original work in high-energy astrophysics. The prize is in honor of Professor Bruno Rossi, an authority on cosmic-ray physics and a pioneer in the field of X-ray astronomy. The prize also includes an engraved certificate and a $1,500 award. The winners of the Rossi Prize will give a joint lecture at the 219th AAS meeting in Austin, Texas, in January 2012.

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The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, formerly GLAST, is an international and multi-agency space observatory that studies the cosmos in gamma-rays, the most energetic form of light. The LAT is one of two instruments onboard Fermi and is the most sensitive and highest-resolution gamma-ray detector ever launched.

More information about Fermi: http://www.nasa.gov/fermi

Information on previous winners of the Rossi Prize: http://www.aas.org/head/rossi/rossi.recip.html