Don Winget

{{Short description|American astronomer and astrophysicist}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Donald Earl Winget<ref name=thesis>{{cite journal | title=Gravity Mode Instabilities in DA White Dwarfs. | last=Winget | first=Donald Earl | journal=Dissertation Abstracts International | volume=43-01 | page=161 | year=1982 | bibcode=1982PhDT........27W | url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1982PhDT........27W/abstract }}</ref> | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image =  | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | birth_name =  | birth_date =  | birth_place = | death_date =  | death_place = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship =  | nationality =  | fields = | workplaces = University of Texas at Austin | patrons = | education = Ph.D. | alma_mater = University of Rochester | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = Christopher Clemens | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Robert J. Trumpler Award<br />Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents = | father = | mother = | relatives = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }}

'''Don E. Winget''' is an American astronomer and astrophysicist who studies white dwarf stars. He is the Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professor in Astronomy and a university distinguished teaching professor at the University of Texas at Austin.<ref name="utexas">{{Cite web | url=http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/people/winget/winget.html | publisher=University of Texas | work=UT Astronomy - Faculty | title=Don Winget | access-date=2021-05-02 | archive-date=2022-01-24 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220124010105/http://www.as.utexas.edu/astronomy/people/winget/winget.html | url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Research== Much of Winget's research concerns the study of white dwarf stars.

Winget's doctoral research at the University of Rochester predicted the existence of DBV stars, a certain class of pulsating white dwarf. After becoming a faculty member at the University of Texas, he and his colleagues discovered GD 358, a star of this class, fulfilling the prediction of his dissertation and marking the first time in which a class of variable stars was predicted to exist before any instances of it were observed.<ref name=trumpler/>

With Ed Nather, his colleague at University of Texas, Winget introduced the technique for studying the seismology and the inner structure of white dwarfs called "Whole Earth Telescope". The technique involves coordinating a network of small telescopes around the world to capture small variations in the light output of a white dwarf caused by its seismic oscillations.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1ej8d0F8jAC&dq=%22Don+Winget%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA68|page=68|title=Cosmic Catastrophes. Exploding Stars, Black Holes, and Mapping the Universe|author=J. Craig Wheeler|year=2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139462419}}</ref>

One of Winget's projects involves studying white dwarfs using the Z machine pulsed-power electromagnetic wave generator at the Sandia National Lab in New Mexico.<ref>{{cite news|work=NPR|url=https://www.npr.org/2014/03/06/286886167/the-scientist-who-makes-stars-on-earth|title=The Scientist Who Makes Stars On Earth|author=Joe Palca|date=2014-03-06|access-date=2021-02-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/a-dying-star-is-reborn-in-a-lab|title=A Dying Star Is Reborn in a Lab|author=Joseph A. Bernstein|work=Discover|date=2012-09-16|access-date=2021-02-03}}</ref>

==Recognition== In 1983, Winget was awarded the Robert J. Trumpler Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.<ref name=trumpler>{{cite journal|date=March 1984|doi=10.1063/1.2916125|issue=3|journal=Physics Today|pages=110–113|title=ASP presents awards to six astronomers|volume=37}}</ref> He received the 1987 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy from the American Astronomical Society.<ref>{{cite web|work=American Astronomical Society|title=Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy|url=https://aas.org/grants-and-prizes/newton-lacy-pierce-prize-astronomy|access-date=2021-02-03}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Winget, Don}} Category:American astronomers Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Place of birth missing (living people) Category:University of Rochester alumni Category:University of Texas at Austin faculty Category:Recipients of the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy