Pauline Barmby named a Distinguished University Professor
Astrophysicist Pauline Barmby has brought to Earth an understanding of how vast and distant galaxies are birthed. She is one of the most highly esteemed teaching professors in the department of physics and astronomy; and has served in administrative roles to improve the work of the department and the Science faculty.
All that should be enough to make even the most modest professor glow a bit with pride.
Not so with Barmby.
“I’m still pretty flabbergasted” to have been nominated and then selected as a Distinguished University Professor, she said.
“I get to talk about the things I love most. I feel incredibly fortunate to have had the career that I’ve had so far, to work with some fantastic people, to do research with some great faculty and students, to work in some great facilities that work better than we would have thought – and to learn some things about the universe along the way.”
Barmby’s nominators noted she is one of science’s most impressive faculty members – with a track record of almost 300 papers and thousands of citations; some of the highest evaluation scores in the department, even while teaching some of the most challenging, largest classes; and serving, at various times in the past seven years, as associate dean, undergraduate physics and astronomy chair, and acting dean of the Faculty of Science.
Her administrative roles in building a strong department have been every bit as challenging – and as gratifying, although in different ways – as her research work into the origins of the universe.
“Comparatively speaking, astrophysics is easy. The universe is complicated – and people are really, really complicated.
“The whole point of academic leadership is that you’re making decisions that are supposed to make people’s lives better and I think I’ve done that.”
