Meet: Wil van der Veen

Astrophysicist

Wil van der Veen has been a research scientist at Columbia University for the past ten years. Dr. van der Veen has written over fifty research papers on the topic of dying stars. He investigates why, when a star gets older, its outer layers drift away and how this shortens its life. He also tries to find out where in our galaxy we can find these dying stars.

Dr. van der Veen is also involved in science education; he is the project coordinator for Project ASTRO NOVA, an astronomy education program that utilizes the resources and skills of volunteer astronomers and astronomy educators to improve the way astronomy, and science in general, are taught in schools.

What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?

When I was 8 years old one of the kids in my class gave a presentation about the planets in our solar system. My teacher also knew a lot about it. I was fascinated! The following Saturday, I went into the city with my dad and bought two books, one about the Moon and one about the planets. It was the fall of 1968 and not much was known about the planets or even our next-door neighbor, the Moon. I remember looking forward to the Christmas flight of Apollo 8, the first manned spacecraft to orbit the Moon and take pictures of its always hidden backside. I watched all six Moon landings on TV. I bought more books and I saved more than over one year’s pocket money to buy a small telescope. After my first glimpse at Jupiter with its four Galilean Moons and Saturn with its rings I was forever hooked! I started a newspaper route to save more money for a bigger telescope, and then an even bigger one.

What educational background do you have, and is it typical of your field?

All through high school I was pretty good in math, physics and chemistry, all of which are needed to become an astronomer. After high school I went to the University of Utrecht (The Netherlands). I grew up in The Netherlands and Dutch High Schools are tough. However, a positive side to this is that once you get to the University you can fully concentrate on your chosen subject; I was doing astronomy right from the start. You can’t study astronomy without lots of advanced physics and math so I was studying that as well. The study of astronomy at a Dutch University leads to a Masters degree and takes six years to complete. In my fourth year I carried out a small research project building a CCD camera. In the final two years I got involved in a larger research project on eclipsing binary stars for which I gathered my own observations at a small observatory in the Swiss Alps. After I finished my Masters I got a position as a research assistant at the University of Leiden, also in The Netherlands, where I worked on my doctoral thesis. It was 1984 and measurements from IRAS, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, were just coming available. IRAS was the first satellite to make very sensitive measurements of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths and it detected over 50,000 old red stars. I used this to find out how and why old stars lose their outer layers and how it causes them to die. I received my Ph.D. from the University of Leiden in 1988, and received a post-doctoral fellowship at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, Scotland.

If you want to become an astronomer in the United States, you first go to college and study physics with a minor in astronomy if possible. You then continue into graduate school and study astronomy. An astronomy Ph.D. at a US graduate school takes typically six years to complete.

What kinds of things do you find most exciting about your work?

I still love to go outside on a clear night, especially when there is no Moon and no light pollution from houses, streetlights or cars. Every time I look up at the sky and see thousands of twinkling stars I wonder about them. Just the idea that much of this light has been traveling since before I was born and now finally reaches us! We are such a tiny part of this enormous universe that it easily makes you feel insignificant. But remember it is not our size, but our mind and its ability to ponder about what is out there that sets us apart!

Related Links:

http://www.KidsAstronomy.com/stars.htm

Star Life Cycles