Kevin Krisciunas

Kevin Krisciunas is an observational astronomer who principally works on optical and infrared photometry of supernovae. Towards the end of its existence (2001), Krisciunas was a member of the High-Z Supernova Team. Two members of that team (Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess) shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of the acceleration of the expansion of the universe. All three were then participants in the ESSENCE project (2002-2016), which discovered 213 exploding white dwarf supernovae and produced light curves of them using the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 4-m telescope. The subsequent refinement of the value of the cosmic equation of state parameter contributes to the conclusion that the Dark Energy density is equivalent to Einstein's cosmological constant. Recently, Krisciunas has also worked on the Carnegie Supernova Project, astronomical site evaluation (atmospheric extinction and sky brightness), the distances and metallicities of open star clusters, spectrophotometry of bright stars, astronomy education, and the history of astronomy. In 2021 and 2022 he serves as the Chair of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society.