# Don Winget

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{{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>
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| workplaces        = University of Texas at Austin
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| education         = Ph.D.
| alma_mater        = University of Rochester
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| doctoral_students = [Christopher Clemens](/source/Christopher_Clemens)
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| awards            = Robert J. Trumpler Award<br />Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
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'''Don E. Winget''' is an American [astronomer](/source/astronomer) and [astrophysicist](/source/astrophysicist) who studies [white dwarf](/source/white_dwarf) stars. He is the Harlan J. Smith Centennial Professor in [Astronomy](/source/Astronomy) and a university distinguished teaching professor at the [University of Texas at Austin](/source/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](/source/white_dwarf) stars.

Winget's doctoral research at the [University of Rochester](/source/University_of_Rochester) predicted the existence of [DBV star](/source/DBV_star)s, a certain class of [pulsating white dwarf](/source/pulsating_white_dwarf). After becoming a faculty member at the University of Texas, he and his colleagues discovered [GD 358](/source/GD_358), a star of this class, fulfilling the prediction of his dissertation and marking the first time in which a class of [variable star](/source/variable_star)s was predicted to exist before any instances of it were observed.<ref name=trumpler/>

With [Ed Nather](/source/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](/source/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](/source/Cambridge_University_Press)|isbn=9781139462419}}</ref>

One of Winget's projects involves studying white dwarfs using the [Z machine](/source/Z_Pulsed_Power_Facility) pulsed-power electromagnetic wave generator at the [Sandia National Lab](/source/Sandia_National_Laboratories) in [New Mexico](/source/New_Mexico).<ref>{{cite news|work=[NPR](/source/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](/source/Discover_(magazine))|date=2012-09-16|access-date=2021-02-03}}</ref>

==Recognition==
In 1983, Winget was awarded the [Robert J. Trumpler Award](/source/Robert_J._Trumpler_Award) for an outstanding doctoral dissertation by the [Astronomical Society of the Pacific](/source/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](/source/Newton_Lacy_Pierce_Prize_in_Astronomy) from the [American Astronomical Society](/source/American_Astronomical_Society).<ref>{{cite web|work=[American Astronomical Society](/source/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}}

{{Authority control}}

{{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

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Don Winget](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Winget) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Winget?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.