Sjur Refsdal

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Sjur Refsdal, Cambridge, UK, 1987

Sjur Refsdal (30 December 1935 – 29 January 2009) was a

Chang-Refsdal lens
.

Biography

In 1970 he earned a doctorate at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Oslo. Later that year he became professor in astrophysics at the Hamburg Observatory[1] in Germany, and remained in that position until he retired in 2001.

In 1964 and 1966 he published a series of articles on the effects and possible applications of gravitational lenses.

Hubble constant) using the measured time-delay and lens properties of a gravitationally lensed Supernova (SN).[3]
This method was applied for the first time in 2018,[4] with the homonymous SN Refsdal. He later started work on stellar evolution, but returned to
gravitational lensing shortly before the first detection of a gravitational lens, dubbed the Twin Quasar
.

He was a member of the

Norwegian Academy of Science and Emeritus at the Institute for theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo.[5] On 1 February 2005 he was awarded the King's Medal of Merit
in gold.

The first detected multiply-lensed supernova was nicknamed "SN Refsdal" in his honor.[6][7]

References

  1. ^ Obituary, Hamburg Observatory
  2. ^ P. Schneider, J. Ehlers, E.E. Falco, Gravitational Lenses, Springer-Verlag, Berlin 1999. Chapter The period 1963-1979 at Google Books
  3. doi:10.1093/mnras/128.4.307
    .
  4. S2CID 119483238
    .
  5. ^ Obituary Archived 2009-03-03 at the Wayback Machine, Institutt for Teoretisk Astrofysikk, 2. February 2009
  6. S2CID 206633888
    .
  7. New York Times
    . Retrieved March 5, 2015.
Awards
Preceded by Recipient of the Fridtjof Nansen Excellent Research Award in Science
2001
(with Jon Storm-Mathisen) 		Succeeded by
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