Gary Bernstein, Reese W. Flower Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the School of Arts and Sciences, has been named a fellow of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), a major international organization of professional astronomers, astronomy educators, and amateur astronomers. He is one of 23 members honored in 2022 for extraordinary achievement and service in original research and publications, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and to the AAS.

Dr. Bernstein was recognized “for advancing the state of the art in optical surveys through contributions to instrumentation, theory, algorithms, and project development; leadership in developing weak gravitational lensing as a precision measure of the dark universe; and discoveries in the outer solar system.”

Dr. Bernstein researches the use of gravitational lensing—the deflection of light by gravity as predicted by general relativity. His current work consists of large astronomical survey projects from space and ground that will use this lensing effect to measure as-yet-unexplained dark matter and dark energy. His projects also include surveys of the solar system beyond Neptune and the construction of one of the first mosaic CCD cameras to be placed on a large telescope, which was used to measure many of the high-redshift supernovae that provided early evidence of the accelerating universe. He is also a past recipient of a CAREER Faculty Award from the National Science Foundation.