2024 Brouwer Award Winner - Dong Lai

The American Astronomical Society's Division on Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) is pleased to announce that the 2024 Dirk Brouwer Career Award is given to Professor Dong Lai of Cornell University to recognize and celebrate his formidable and broad contributions to astrophysical dynamics, his outstanding mentoring record, and his wide-ranging professional service activities.

Prof. Lai is a prolific researcher whose expertise spans fluid dynamics, magneto-hydrodynamics, N-body dynamics and relativistic dynamics, as well as neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs and exoplanets. The depth and impact of his expertise is showcased in his many invited review papers, as well as with his individual pioneering advancements in each of these fields. Just a couple examples of his contributions include the identification of astrophysical spin-orbit coupling in binary pulsars as a robust mechanism for measuring the asymmetry of core-collapse supernovae and the application of tidal dissipation in planet-hosting stars to reveal the prior evolutionary history of the planets.

Prof. Lai's boundless enthusiasm and energy for scientific advancement has also benefited the community through his mentorship and service. He has supervised a long list of students and postdocs who now generate their own original and rigorous scientific output and have gone on to lead successful careers in their own right. Prof. Lai's service on advisory boards and his international peer review responsibilities have helped shape the future of dynamical astronomy.

Prof. Lai will be invited to give a lecture at the 56th annual DDA meeting in the spring of 2025.