Presidential Young Investigator Award: Research in Pulsars and Interstellar Medium

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Kulkarni has already made major contributions in research on the interstellar medium and in the search for pulsars. He will continue work on these topics but concentrate on optical interferometry, using radio techniques for phase closure. This award under the Presidential Young Investigator Program is made to an astrophysicist who already has a worldwide reputation for his work on the interstellar medium, search for pulsars, and design of astronomical instrumentation. He was co-discoverer of the first pulsar with a rotation period of only a few milliseconds, a phenomenon that provided new understanding concerning the aging of stars. Kulkarni is an expert on interferometry, the method of using several telescopes to provide a joint sharp image of an astronomical object. He expects to extend a particularly effective technique of radio interferometry to the optical and infrared wavelength. As a first objective, he will obtain the sharpest possible images from the Mount Palomar five-meter telescope despite the continual blurring of the Earth's atmosphere.