Rate My Professor W. David Arnett

W. David Arnett, a prominent figure in space science and astrophysics, earned his BS in Physics from the University of Kentucky in 1961, followed by an MS in Physics in 1963 and a PhD in Physics in 1965, both from Yale University. His early career included postdoctoral research at the California Institute of Technology under W. A. Fowler and at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge with Fred Hoyle. Arnett held faculty appointments at Rice University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he served as Professor of Astronomy from 1972 to 1977. He subsequently joined the University of Chicago as the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics until 1988. Since then, he has been Regents Professor of Astrophysics at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, now holding the title of Regents' Professor Emeritus.

Arnett's research specializations encompass nuclear astrophysics, supernova explosions, nucleosynthesis of elements in stars, gravitational collapse leading to neutron stars or black holes, and the application of supercomputers to model neutrino radiation hydrodynamics, nuclear reaction networks, instabilities, supernova light curves, and turbulent convective flows in stellar interiors. His seminal contributions include foundational computational models that advanced understanding of supernova mechanisms and stellar evolution. Key publications feature the book Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis: An Investigation of the History of Matter, from the Big Bang to the Present (1996); "Type I supernovae. I - Analytic solutions for the early part of the light curve" (1982, Astrophysical Journal); "Supernova 1987A" (1989); "Turbulent Convection in Stellar Interiors. I. Hydrodynamic Simulation" (2007, with C. Meakin); and "Toward Realistic Progenitors of Core-Collapse Supernovae" (2011, with C. Meakin). Arnett has received prestigious honors, including election to the National Academy of Sciences (1985) and American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1985), the Hans Bethe Prize from the American Physical Society (2009), the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship from the American Astronomical Society (2012), and the Marcel Grossmann Award (2012). His work has profoundly shaped modern computational astrophysics and supernova theory.