The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2012 Laureate

David C Jewitt was born in 1958 in England and is currently a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles and Director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets at UCLA.  He graduated from the University of London in 1979 and received a Master’s degree in Science and a PhD in Planetary Science and Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1980 and 1983 respectively.  During the period 1983 to 1988 he worked as an Assistant Professor at MIT.  From 1988 to 1993, he held positions as Associate Astronomer and Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii, where he became Astronomer and Professor in 1993, and where he continued to work until 2009.  He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. 

The Shaw Prize in Astronomy 2012 is awarded in equal shares to David C Jewitt and Jane Luu for their discovery and characterization of trans-Neptunian bodies, an archeological treasure dating back to the formation of the solar system and the long-sought source of short period comets.