{{short description|Greek American astronomer (born 1967)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Paul Kalas | image = Paul Kalas in 2015.jpg | image_size = 250 | caption = Paul Kalas in 2015, Cerro Pachón, Chile | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1967|08|13}} | birth_place = New York City, United States | death_date = | death_place = | fields = Astronomy | workplaces = University of California, Berkeley | alma_mater = University of Hawaiʻi<br>University of Michigan | doctoral_advisor = David C. Jewitt | doctoral_students = | known_for = Exoplanet Research<br>Fomalhaut, Fomalhaut b | awards = {{no wrap|Newcomb Cleveland Prize {{small|(2009)}}}} }} '''Paul Kalas''' (born August 13, 1967) is a Greek American astronomer known for his discoveries of debris disks around stars. Kalas led a team of scientists to obtain the first visible-light images of an extrasolar planet with orbital motion around the star Fomalhaut, at a distance of 25 light years from Earth.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/14/science/space/14planet.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |title=First Pictures Taken of Extrasolar Planets |accessdate=13 November 2008 |work=The New York Times | first=Dennis | last=Overbye | date=November 14, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Kalas | first=Paul |display-authors=etal | date=2008 | title=Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light-Years from Earth | journal=Science | volume=322 | issue=5906 | pages=1345–1348 | doi=10.1126/science.1166609 | pmid=19008414 |bibcode = 2008Sci...322.1345K |arxiv = 0811.1994 | s2cid=10054103}}</ref> The planet is referred to as Fomalhaut b.
==Background== Kalas was born in New York City to George Kavallinis and Maria Drettakis, who immigrated to the United States from Heraklion, Crete. Kalas attended Detroit Country Day School in Michigan, and studied astronomy and physics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy in 1996 from the University of Hawaiʻi under the direction of astronomer David C. Jewitt.
Kalas worked as a postdoctoral scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2006, he became an adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Kalas lives with his wife Aspasia Gkika and daughters Maria-Nikoleta and Natalia near Berkeley, California.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://astro.berkeley.edu/~kalas/|title=Paul Kalas – Astronomer | Author}}</ref>
==Discoveries== Kalas discovered several circumstellar disks using a coronagraph on the Hubble Space Telescope and at the University of Hawaii 2.2-meter telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii. In 1995 he discovered various forms of asymmetric structures in optical images of the Beta Pictoris disk.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first=P.|author2=Jewitt, D.|date=1995|title=Asymmetries in the Beta Pictoris dust disk|bibcode=1995AJ....110..794K|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=110|pages=794–804|doi=10.1086/117565}}</ref> He was the lead scientist for the first optical images of debris disks surrounding the nearby red dwarf AU Microscopii and the bright star Fomalhaut.<ref name="Kalas05">{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first= P.|author2=Graham, J.R.|author3=Clampin, M.|name-list-style=amp|date=2005|title=A planetary system as the origin of structure in Fomalhaut's dust belt|journal=Nature|volume=435|issue=7045|pages=1067–1070|doi=10.1038/nature03601|pmid=15973402|bibcode=2005Natur.435.1067K|arxiv = astro-ph/0506574 |s2cid= 4406070}}</ref><ref name="Kalas04">{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first=P.|author2=Liu, M.C.|author3=Matthews, B.C.|name-list-style=amp|date=2004|title=Discovery of a large dust disk around the nearby star AU Microscopii|journal=Science|volume=303|issue=5666|pages=1990–1992|doi=10.1126/science.1093420|pmid=14988511|bibcode=2004Sci...303.1990K|arxiv = astro-ph/0403132 |s2cid=6943137}}</ref> Kalas' Hubble Space Telescope image of Fomalhaut revealed a narrow belt of dusty material analogous to our Solar System's Kuiper Belt. However, Kalas also found that Fomalhaut's belt is narrow and geometrically offset from the star by 15 astronomical units. These features are considered strong evidence for an extrasolar planet orbiting Fomalhaut that gravitationally sculpts the morphology of the belt.
{| class=wikitable align="center" width="300px" |+ '''Circumstellar disks discovered: 5''' |- | AU Microscopii<ref name="Kalas04"/> || October 14, 2003 |- | Fomalhaut<ref name="Kalas05"/> || May 17, 2004 |- | HD 15115<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first=P.|author2=Fitzgerald, M.|author3=Graham, J.R.|name-list-style=amp|date=2007|title=Discovery of extreme asymmetry in the debris disk surrounding HD 15115|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=661|issue=1|pages=L85–L88|doi=10.1086/518652|bibcode=2007ApJ...661L..85K|arxiv = 0704.0645 |s2cid=16599464}}</ref> || July 17, 2006 |- | HD 53143<ref name="Kalas06">{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first=P.|author2=Graham, J.R.|author3=Clampin, M.C.|author4=Fitzgerald, M.|name-list-style=amp|date=2006|title=First scattered light images of debris disks around HD 53143 and HD 139664|journal=The Astrophysical Journal|volume=637|issue=1|pages=L57–L60|doi=10.1086/500305|bibcode=2006ApJ...637L..57K|arxiv = astro-ph/0601488 |s2cid=18293244}}</ref> || September 11, 2004 |- | HD 139664<ref name="Kalas06"/> || October 14, 2004 |}
==Honors== *Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2014)<ref name="Fellow">{{cite web | url = http://news.berkeley.edu/2014/11/24/aaas-fellows/ | title = Four UC Berkeley faculty named AAAS fellows | author = Sarah Yang | date = November 24, 2014 | accessdate = 2015-11-16}}</ref> *AIAA William H. Pickering Lecture (2010)<ref name="Pickering">{{cite web | url = http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/aioa-s2c071310.php | title = Space 2010 Conference set for August 30 - Sep. 2 in Anaheim | author = AIAA Public Release | date = July 13, 2010 | accessdate = 2015-11-16 | archive-date = 2015-11-18 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151118004133/http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-07/aioa-s2c071310.php | url-status = dead }}</ref> *Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009)<ref name="newcomb">{{cite web | url = http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/02/18_kalas_fomalhaut.shtml | title = Images of extrasolar planets win award for most outstanding papers in Science | author = Robert Sanders | date = February 18, 2010 | accessdate = 2010-03-11}}</ref><ref name="newcomb1">{{cite web | url = http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/awards/newcomb/newcomb_winners.shtml | title = Newcomb Cleveland Prize Recipients | author = AAAS | date = November 2009 | accessdate = 2010-04-21 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121023152927/http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/awards/newcomb/newcomb_winners.shtml | archive-date = 2012-10-23 | url-status = dead}}</ref>
==Selected publications== ===Articles=== *{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first=P.|author2=Liu, M.C.|author3=Matthews, B.C.|name-list-style=amp|date=2004|title=Discovery of a large dust disk around the nearby star AU Microscopii|journal=Science|volume=303|issue=5666|pages=1990–1992|doi=10.1126/science.1093420|pmid=14988511|bibcode=2004Sci...303.1990K|arxiv = astro-ph/0403132 |s2cid=6943137}}
*{{cite journal|last=Kalas|first= P.|author2=Graham, J.R.|author3=Clampin, M.|name-list-style=amp|date=2005|title=A planetary system as the origin of structure in Fomalhaut's dust belt|journal=Nature|volume=435|issue=7045|pages=1067–1070|doi=10.1038/nature03601|pmid=15973402|bibcode=2005Natur.435.1067K|arxiv = astro-ph/0506574 |s2cid= 4406070}}
*{{cite journal | last=Kalas | first=Paul |display-authors=etal | date=2008 | title=Optical Images of an Exosolar Planet 25 Light-Years from Earth | journal=Science | volume=322 | issue=5906 | pages=1345–1348 | doi=10.1126/science.1166609 | pmid=19008414 |bibcode = 2008Sci...322.1345K |arxiv = 0811.1994 | s2cid=10054103}}
===Books=== *{{Citation |last=Kalas |first=Paul |year=2018|title=The Oneironauts: Using dreams to engineer our future'|publisher=Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp |isbn=978-1720177616}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links == *[https://web.archive.org/web/20141104102034/http://www.disksite.com/ The Circumstellar Disk Learning Site] *[http://astro.berkeley.edu/~kalas/ Kalas' homepage] *[http://skytonight.com/news/3310401.html?showAll=y&c=y Sky & Telescope Article on Fomalhaut discovery]{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} *[http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planets_common_040302.html Space.com article on AU Microscopii discovery] *[https://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8613 New Scientist article on HD 53143 and HD 139664 discoveries]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kalas, Paul}} Category:1967 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century American people of Greek descent Category:20th-century Greek astronomers Category:American astronomers Category:American people of Greek descent Category:University of California, Berkeley faculty Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Category:University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Category:Detroit Country Day School alumni