Daniel Batcheldor

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Daniel Batcheldor is an Anglo-American astrophysicist, a former professor at Florida Institute of Technology and Head of the Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, and Director of the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope.^[1]

In 2000, Batcheldor served as a student support astronomer at the Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes with responsibilities for the Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope.^[2] He received a bachelor's degree in astronomy from the University of Hertfordshire in 2001, and in 2004 he completed his Ph.D. at the same institution.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, Batcheldor moved to a faculty position at Florida Institute of Technology and became the Director of the Olin Observatory.^[3] In 2014, he became Head of the Department of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Institute of Technology,^[4] until his departure in July 2020.^[1][5]

Batcheldor's work includes the quantification of selection effects in the M–σ relation.,^[6] the demonstration of low signal-to-noise data in published supermassive black holes mass estimates as well as comparative supermassive black holes mass measurements,^[7][8] and the discovery of a spatially offset supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87.^[9][10]

Batcheldor led the efforts to calibrate the NICMOS instrument on board the Hubble Space Telescope to enable imaging polarimetry at the level of 1%.^[11][12]

In 2012 he began efforts to bring back to operational status the 1.0-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope that had been taken out of service in 2003. This facility is now a remote observatory operated by the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA).^[2] Batcheldor is the principal investigator for the SpectraCAM charge injection device payload that was tested on the Nanoracks External Platform on the International Space Station.^[13][14]

Batcheldor is author of Astronomy Saves the World: Securing our Future Through Exploration and Education (ISBN 0997247509, ISBN 978-0997247503) that advocates for the introduction of astronomy as part of the core K-12 curriculum.

• Official website
• Daniel Batcheldor at Florida Institute of Technology Archived 6 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine