MG 14 · 2015
Sachiko Tsuruta
Sachiko Tsuruta is an astrophysicist known for foundational calculations of neutron-star cooling.
Born
Japan
Affiliation at the Time of the Award
Montana State University, Bozeman, United States
Prize Motivation
“For pioneering the physics of hot neutron stars and their cooling.”
Meeting
MG XIV, Rome, Italy
Work
Neutron-star temperatures reveal the properties of ultradense matter that cannot be reproduced in terrestrial laboratories.
Tsuruta developed early theoretical models for how young neutron stars cool through neutrino emission and surface radiation.
Her work made thermal observations of compact stars a probe of nuclear matter and stellar interiors.