Anna Barnacka
Polish astrophysicist and entrepreneur
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Anna Barnacka is a Polish astrophysicist and entrepreneur. She is known for her contributions to gravitational lensing and astroparticle physics, as well as for inventing in-ear infrasonic hymodynography.
Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland. (Ph.D.|astronomy)
Paris-Sud University, France (Ph.D.|physics).
Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland (Master of Physics with Computer Science M.A.)
Nicolaus Copernicus Award
Anna Barnacka | |
|---|---|
Anna Barnacka | |
| Born | July 28, 1984[citation needed] |
| Citizenship | Polish |
| Alma mater | Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland (Habilitation). Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw, Poland. (Ph.D.|astronomy) Paris-Sud University, France (Ph.D.|physics). Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland (Master of Physics with Computer Science M.A.) |
| Awards | NASA Einstein Fellowship Nicolaus Copernicus Award |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | Jagiellonian University, Krakow Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, MindMics, Inc. |
Education
Barnacka received her PhDs in astronomy from Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Poland, and physics from Paris-Sud University conducting her research at French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission in Paris, France. After earning her doctorates, she became a postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She received a NASA Einstein Fellowship in 2015,[1] during which she researched the phenomena of gravitational lensing and pioneered techniques for turning gravitational lenses into high-resolution telescopes.[2][3]
Barnacka's research has also focused on very high energy astroparticle physics, where she has been a member of international collaborations, including the Cherenkov Telescope Array,[4][5] VERITAS,[6] and H.E.S.S.[7] As of 2022,[update] she has an h-index of 43 with over 7100 citations to her work.[8]
Barnacka is the founder and CEO of MindMics,[9] a company presenting new tools to monitor vital signs related to cardiovascular health and wellness,[10] and she has patent applications associated with this work.[11][12] MindMics acts as a platform, that is composed of three parts: the hardware, the data systems and algorithms, and the interface.[9] The company's earbud hardware measures and provides data on heart, brain, and other body function activity using infrasonic hemodynography technology.[13] She has conducted studies on the technology's effectiveness,[13] the results of which were published in professional publications such as the American Heart Association journal Circulation.[14]
Selected publications
- The CTA Consortium; Actis, M.; Agnetta, G.; Aharonian, F.; Akhperjanian, A.; Aleksić, J.; Aliu, E.; Allan, D.; Allekotte, I.; Antico, F.; Antonelli, L. A. (2011). "Design concepts for the Cherenkov Telescope Array CTA: an advanced facility for ground-based high-energy gamma-ray astronomy". Experimental Astronomy. 32 (3): 193–316. arXiv:1008.3703. Bibcode:2011ExA....32..193A. doi:10.1007/s10686-011-9247-0. ISSN 0922-6435. S2CID 122872675.
- Bernlöhr, K.; Barnacka, A.; Becherini, Y.; Blanch Bigas, O.; Carmona, E.; Colin, P.; Decerprit, G.; Di Pierro, F.; Dubois, F.; Farnier, C.; Funk, S. (2013-03-01). "Monte Carlo design studies for the Cherenkov Telescope Array". Astroparticle Physics. Seeing the High-Energy Universe with the Cherenkov Telescope Array - The Science Explored with the CTA. 43: 171–188. arXiv:1210.3503. Bibcode:2013APh....43..171B. doi:10.1016/j.astropartphys.2012.10.002. ISSN 0927-6505. S2CID 59057785.
- Barnacka, A.; Glicenstein, J.-F.; Moderski, R. (2012-08-02). "New constraints on primordial black holes abundance from femtolensing of gamma-ray bursts". Physical Review D. 86 (4) 043001. arXiv:1204.2056. Bibcode:2012PhRvD..86d3001B. doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.86.043001. ISSN 1550-7998. S2CID 119301812.
- Barnacka, Anna; Moderski, Rafal; Behera, Bagmeet; Brun, Pierre; Wagner, Stefan (2014-07-01). "PKS 1510-089: a rare example of a flat spectrum radio quasar with a very high-energy emission". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 567: A113. arXiv:1307.1779. Bibcode:2014A&A...567A.113B. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201322205. ISSN 0004-6361. S2CID 55505285.
- Barnacka, Anna; Geller, Margaret J.; Dell'Antonio, Ian P.; Zitrin, Adi (2016-04-11). "The Structure of the Strongly Lensed Gamma-Ray Source B2 0218+35". The Astrophysical Journal. 821 (1): 58. arXiv:1511.02891. Bibcode:2016ApJ...821...58B. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/821/1/58. ISSN 1538-4357. S2CID 37897083.
Awards and honors
In 2012, Barnacka received the Copernicus Astronomical Center Young Scientist Award[15] primarily in recognition of her 2012 paper in Physical Review.[16]
In 2020, Barnacka received Nicolaus Copernicus Prize in the category of Cosmology and Astrophysics (an honor given once every five years) by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences [17] for the outstanding monothematic cycle of five manuscripts under the collective title: Development of a method of using gravitational lensing for astronomical measurements with high resolution. The work is summarized in the invited review manuscript in Physics Reports.[18]