Shantanu Basu

Introduction for Media/Presentations

Shantanu Basu is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University. His research team studies the formation of gravitationally collapsed objects at multiple scales and epochs of the universe, including the formation of stars, planets, brown dwarfs, and supermassive black holes. He is one of the originators of the Migrating Embryo Model for protoplanetary disk evolution, which is a unified scenario for angular momentum transport, binary star and giant planet formation, and the formation of ejected freely floating low mass objects.

Shantanu earned his PhD in Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, after which he held postdoctoral positions at Michigan State University and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) at the University of Toronto. He joined the faculty at Western University in 1999 and was instrumental in developing the astronomy group and the current astrophysics undergraduate program. Shantanu served as Department Chair of Physics and Astronomy at a time of expansion of its personnel and its facilities, as well as of opportunities for student internships, online education, and study abroad programs. He has also served Western through its faculty union UWOFA and the university Senate. Shantanu has been active in the SHARCNET supercomputing consortium, the CITA National Council, and the Awards Committee of the Canadian Astronomical Society, including being its Chair. He has been named to the University Students' Council Teaching Honour Roll and recognized by Western as a Faculty Scholar.

Shantanu has served on numerous review panels, including for NASA, HST, ORF, departmental reviews, and has been involved in the organization of many international conferences. He has also organized a series of winter schools on astronomy for undergraduate students that promoted gender equity and cross-cultural understanding. He is the author of the book Essential Astrophysics: Interstellar Matter to Stellar Remnants, published by CRC Press. In 2013, Asteroid 277883 Basu was named after him by the International Astronomical Union.

Shantanu Basu is a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western University, in London, Ontario, Canada. Shantanu's personal and professional life has taken him across the world several times, with Canada representing his fifth country of residence. He received his PhD in Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993, and held academic positions at Michigan State University and the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, in Toronto, before joining Western in 1999.

Shantanu is known as an expert in studies of the early stages of star formation and protoplanetary disk formation and evolution. He has made contributions to understanding fragmentation of interstellar molecular clouds, the role of magnetic fields and angular momentum in gravitational collapse and star formation, the origin of luminosity bursts from young stellar objects, and the origin of power-laws in the mass distribution of stars. Shantanu has also contributed to understanding the luminosity function of supermassive black holes seen in the high redshift universe. He is one of the originators of the Migrating Embryo Model for protoplanetary disk evolution, which is a unified scenario for angular momentum transport, binary star and giant planet formation, and the formation of ejected freely floating low mass objects. Shantanu has published over 100 research papers, mostly as first or second author, and has given over 100 invited lectures and colloquia, spanning 16 different countries.

Shantanu served as Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Western from 2010-2015. He was previously the Site Leader for the Sharcnet supercomputing consortium at Western, and Director of the Collaborative Program in Theoretical Physics. In 2007 he was named a Faculty Scholar by Western, in recognition of outstanding research and teaching. In 2013, Asteroid 277883 Basu was named after him by the International Astronomical Union.