Riccardo Giacconi, announced today as a co-recipient of this year’s Nobel
Prize in physics, is a research professor in the Physics and Astronomy
Department of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at the Johns Hopkins
University.

From 1982 to 1997, Giacconi was a Johns Hopkins professor of physics and
astronomy. In 1998, he became a Hopkins research professor to continue his
personal program of X-ray astronomy research while serving in the latest of
a series of positions as lead administrator of groups that build and
operate large astronomical observatories.

Currently president of Associated Universities, Incorporated, the
corporation that co-administers the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
with the National Science Foundation, Giacconi previously served from 1981
to 1993 as director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, the NASA
center that operates and administers the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope
from a facility on Johns Hopkins’ Homewood campus.

Holland Ford, professor of astronomy at Johns Hopkins, came to the Space
Telescope Science Institute in 1981 at the start of Giacconi’s term as
director there.

“Riccardo is one of the most remarkable scientists that I have ever known
in his focus and his clear perception of what the important problems are,”
said Ford. “He has alway impressed me and anyone else in the room with us
with his ability to cut through the smoke and mirrors to see what the
essential objective should be.”

The Nobel Prize committee selected Giacconi for his pioneering work in
X-ray astronomy. “Riccardo’s achievements in X-ray astronomy provided us
with an astounding, marvelous new view of the universe,” said Richard
Henry, professor of astronomy at Johns Hopkins.

Giacconi currently collaborates with Colin Norman, a professor of astronomy
at Johns Hopkins.

“We’re delighted that Riccardo’s pioneering work has been recognized by the
Nobel committee, and we look forward to continuing our long and productive
relationship with him,” said Jonathan Bagger, physics professor and
department chair at Johns Hopkins.

After his tenure as director of the Space Telescope Science Institute,
Giacconi served for several years as director general of the European
Southern Observatory (ESO), a European astronomical consortium that built
and operates several large observatories in Chile.

Warren Moos, professor of astronomy at Johns Hopkins, praised the
observatories built during Giacconi’s tenure at ESO and the new facilities
currently in development under his leadership at AUI.

“In my mind, Riccardo is a major figure who’s had an enormous impact on the
ability of astronomers to pursue their research,” said Moos. “I can’t
underscore enough the tremendous effect that he’s had on the facilities
that we have.”

“He’s a natural leader,” says Timothy Heckman, professor of astronomy at
Hopkins. “He’s the sort of person that you think could’ve been, say,
president of general Motors–if he hadn’t been drawn into astrophysics.”