Lars Bildsten

Bildsten received a Bachelor of Science with a major in engineering physics from Ohio State University in 1985 and a Doctor of Philosophy in theoretical physics from Cornell University in 1991.^[1][2]

Bildsten was then a research fellow at Caltech for three years, after which he accepted a faculty appointment at the University of California, Berkeley. Rising from assistant to associate professor, in both the physics and astronomy departments, he moved to UCSB in 1999.^[3] In 2010, he was awarded the Wayne Rosing, Simon and Diana Raab chair in theoretical astrophysics. He was named director of the Kavli Institute, succeeding David Gross, in 2012.^[4]

In addition to his university teaching and research, Bildsten has devoted significant effort to strengthening science and engineering education in grades 7–12. A member of the board of directors of Santa Barbara's Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy Foundation, he worked to raise $3 million in funding for a dedicated facility and to support math tutors.^[5]

Bildsten received an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship in 1995. In 1998, the Research Corporation designated him as a Cottrell Scholar. He was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society in 1999^[6] and the 2017 Dannie Heineman Prize.^[7] His invited lectureships include the 2000 Edwin Salpeter Lecture at Cornell, and the 2004 Biermann Lecture at the Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics.^[3] He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018 ^[8] and Elected a Legacy Fellow of the American Astronomical Society in 2020.^[9]