Kazunori Akiyama hired as Research Scientist
MIT Haystack Observatory has hired Kazunori Akiyama as a research scientist in the astronomy group. Akiyama has been working at Haystack as a post-doctoral researcher and Jansky Fellow of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) since 2015, focused on leading the stunning and historic black hole imaging efforts of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration (https://news-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/2019/mit-haystack-first-image-black-hole-0410).
Akiyama, born and educated in Japan, received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Hokkaido University in 2010, and completed M.Sc. and Ph.D. programs in Astronomy at the University of Tokyo in 2012 and 2015, respectively, under the supervision of Professor Mareki Honma at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Mizusawa VLBI Observatory.
“Kazu authored one of the three algorithms used by the EHT; his work was an essential part of the historic first imaging of a black hole by the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration,” says Colin Lonsdale, director of Haystack Observatory and vice-chair of the EHT board. “We are proud to have him working with us at Haystack and contributing to EHT research.”
Akiyama’s innovative work in the imaging group of the Event Horizon Telescope has not gone unnoticed by the international science community: he has recently received two major awards. In March 2020, he won the 2020 Young Astronomer Award from the Astronomical Society of Japan (ASJ); the awards program annually recognizes up to three early-career scientists who are under 35 years of age and who have made outstanding contributions to astronomy in the past five years.
In April 2020, Akiyama was awarded the Young Scientists’ Prize by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). This award annually recognizes scientists under 40 years old, who accomplished outstanding research results.
Akiyama said, “I’m delighted and excited to join Haystack Observatory, an outstanding research center leading innovations in radio astronomy for many decades, as a research scientist.”