dr nicholas b suntzeff university distinguished professor of physics and astronomy at texas a&m university has been elected as a 2017 fellow of the american physical society (aps) the worlds largest organization of physicists dr nicholas b suntzeff no more than one-half of 1 percent of the organizations current membership is selected by their peers for inclusion in the aps fellowship program which was created to recognize advances in knowledge through original research and publication innovative contributions in the application of physics to science and technology and significant contributions to the teaching of physics or service suntzeff an observational astronomer specializing in cosmology supernovae stellar populations and astronomical instrumentation is cited for essential contributions and leadership in observational cosmology and astrophysics; investigations into the phenomenology of type ia supernovae which laid the groundwork for the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the universe; and for co-founding one of the two teams that made this discovery he was nominated by the aps division of astrophysics and is one of five 2017 honorees from the state of texas suntzeff joined the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy in 2006 as director of the texas a&m astronomy program and the inaugural holder of the mitchell-heep-munnerlyn chair in observational astronomy a member of the george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy he was appointed in 2013 as a university distinguished professor the highest level of achievement for faculty recognized as pre-eminent authorities in their fields prior to coming to texas a&m suntzeff spent 20 years as a staff astronomer at the national optical astronomy observatory cerro tololo inter-american observatory (ctio) in la serena chile rising to the rank of associate director for science at noao in 1994 with dr brian schmidt he co-founded the high-z supernova search team that in 1998 discovered acceleration and the presence of dark energy in the universe the finding was honored as science magazines scientific breakthrough of the year for 1998 across all science disciplines and earned a host of prestigious international awards including the 2006 shaw prize the 2007 gruber prize in cosmology the 2011 nobel prize in physics and the 2015 breakthrough prize in fundamental physics he was also a co-founder of the calan/tololo supernova survey that established type ia supernovae as the most precise markers for measuring cosmological distances suntzeff previously was honored by the university with the 2013 bush excellence award for international research and a 2012 texas a&m association of former students distinguished achievement award in research a past vice president of the american astronomical society he spent most of 2011 in washington dc as texas a&ms first-ever national academy of sciences jefferson science fellow advising the us state department on scientific issues as they relate to international diplomacy suntzeff earned a bachelors degree in mathematics from stanford university in 1974 and a phd in astronomy and astrophysics from the university of california santa cruz and lick observatory in 1980 to learn more about suntzeff and his teaching research and professional service accomplishments visit dr nicholas suntzeff/ for more information on the american physical society or the aps fellowship program visit at http://wwwapsorg # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu or dr nicholas b suntzeff (979) 229-9597 or nsuntzeff@tamuedu