Supernovae, the Fate of the Universe, and Broadening the Perspectives of Tomorrow's Scientists

伦纳德博士被授予NSF天文学和天体物理学博士后奖学金，在加州理工学院开展一项研究和教育计划。伦纳德博士将对超新星的研究进行双管齐下的综合研究。超新星是某些类型恒星演化的最后一个爆炸性阶段。首先，他将通过加拿大-法国-夏威夷望远镜遗产和Quest-2调查发现的超新星的光谱和光度研究，寻求验证和扩大遥远超新星作为宇宙学探测器的作用。其次，他将在Palomar 5米和Keck 10米望远镜上发起一项密集的超新星光谱偏振测量活动，以研究超新星的早期几何形状，这对超新星作为距离指示器的用途至关重要。除了他的研究之外，伦纳德博士还将向加州理工大学的本科生讲授一门名为《发明现实：人类寻找真理》的课程。虽然与人类科学思想史大体相关，但本课程的一个特别重点将是人们提出的问题以及令提问者满意的答案如何随着时间和文化的变化而变化的问题。这将为加州理工学院的本科生提供一个独特的机会，让他们研究当前科学范式的基础，并了解不同时间和/或地点的其他社会如何处理西方科学家今天正在提出的相同问题。

Dr. Leonard is awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Leonard will pursue an integrated two-pronged research effort into the study of supernovae-the final, explosive stage in the evolution of certain types of stars. First, he will seek to verify and extend the role of distant supernovae as cosmological probes through the spectroscopic and photometric study of supernovae discovered by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy and QUEST-2 surveys. Second, he will launch an intensive supernova spectropolarimetry campaign at the Palomar 5-meter and Keck 10-meter telescopes to investigate the early-time geometry of supernovae, which is of fundamental importance to their utility as distance indicators.In addition to his research, Dr. Leonard will teach a course targeted to Caltech undergraduates entitled ''Inventing Reality: The Human Search for Truth''. While broadly related to the history of human scientific thought, a particular focus of the course will be the issue of how the questions that people have asked and how the answers that satisfy the questioners have changed over time and across cultures. This will provide Caltech undergraduates a unique opportunity to examine the foundations of the present scientific paradigm and to gain an appreciation for how other societies at different times and/or places approach(ed) the same questions that Western scientists are asking today.