Dr. Alexei Filippenko to receive the 2026 Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Awarded to an individual or individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy, the Klumpke-Roberts Award for 2026 goes to Dr. Alexei (Alex) Filippenko, for his dedication in sharing science through more than 40 years of engaging students and the public with infectious enthusiasm, engaging talks and other presentations, astronomy video courses, and media appearances.
Dr. Filippenko’s story begins after receiving his PhD in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology in 1984 followed by a postdoctoral Miller Research Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) where he joined the faculty in 1986. One nominator shares how “scientists are wary of operating at the intersection of science and entertainment, but through my many conversations with Alex I know that he views public outreach as central to his mission as an educator.” This passion and his commitment have been instrumental in how he has communicated to several tens of thousands of students at UC Berkeley. His “Introduction to General Astronomy” class became wildly popular in the 1990s, bringing in class sizes upwards of 700-800 students and one of the largest and most sought-after undergraduate electives. A fellow educator shared an example of his infectious demonstration with how “at his classes at UC Berkeley, for example, he jumps from the floor to chairs and desks as he catches colored balls students toss at him, illustrating the absorption of photons by electrons in different atomic energy levels.” By the 2010s, students voted Filippenko as "Best Professor" on campus a record nine times, and in 2006 he was named the Carnegie/CASE National Professor of the Year among doctoral and research institutions.
Alongside his highly engaging astronomy class, Filippenko is also a research scientist focusing on supernovae (exploding stars), gamma-ray bursts, active galaxies, black holes, and the expansion of the Universe. At UC’s Lick Observatory, his scientific contributions centered primarily on robotic supernova hunting, observational stellar and extragalactic astronomy, and long-standing educational leadership; he is also an active user of the 10 m Keck telescopes in Hawai`i, the Hubble Space Telescope, and JWST. In 1998, Filippenko was the sole scientist on both teams for the Supernova Cosmology Project and the High-z Supernova Search Team that used distant supernovae to discover that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, presumably due to dark energy. Named 1998's top scientific breakthrough by Science magazine, this discovery earned both team leaders the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, and all team members the 2006 Gruber Cosmology Prize and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He has upwards of 1200 scientific publications, more than 2900 abstracts and telegrams, and an impressive >232,000 citations.
Dr. Filippenko’s contributions to public outreach extend beyond the classroom. One of his nominators notes how “Alex is always steadfast in his view that no matter how the message is packaged, it’s important to get scientific research out to the general public.” While Filippenko has co-authored an award-winning college textbook with Jay Pasachoff (5 editions), he also has given over 1600 public lectures or other presentations. He produced an “Understanding the Universe” video course for The Great Courses with 96 half-hour lectures, as well as their video courses “Black Holes Explained” and “Skywatching.” He has also been the scientific advisor and on-camera contributor for many programs on the History Channel, The Weather Channel, PBS, and Science Channel.
Dr. Filippenko's numerous awards are attributed to his scientific contributions and generous gift of sharing his knowledge with the public. He has received distinguished awards and fellowships from institutions such as UC Berkeley, Texas A&M University, UC Santa Barbara, and the California Institute of Technology. Most recently, he was one of only three recipients of the 2026 Gruber Cosmology Prize for his studies of supernovae. He has also received awards from or been an elected member to organizations such as the American Astronomical Society (AAS), Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), American Association of Physics Teachers, Guggenheim Foundation, Canadian Astronomical Society, US National Academy of Sciences, and American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has served on multiple boards, including President of the ASP, AAS Councilor, Chabot Space & Science Center, and the SF Bay Area’s Wonderfest. One of his most notable actions was his grassroots fundraising and public pressure to save Lick Observatory back in 2013, when it was threatened with closing.
About the Klumpke-Roberts Award
For outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy
The ASP bestows the Klumpke-Roberts Award on those who have made outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy. Awardees include Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Chesley Bonestell, Timothy Ferris, Walter Sullivan, Heidi Hammel, and the staffs of Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines.
Created in 1974, the Klumpke-Roberts award celebrates the importance the ASP places for scientists to help the public understand the new discoveries and developments in astronomy and their significance. It was named in honor of Dorothea Klumpke Roberts (1861-1942), a native San Franciscan who became the first woman to receive a Doctor of Science degree at the University of Paris. She worked at the Paris Observatory for many years on the gigantic Carte du Ciel project (a cooperative effort among many observatories to photograph the entire sky).
Dorothea Klumpke joined the ASP in 1890 (becoming one of the first female members). Near the end of her life, and then again in her will, she gave the Society money, to be known as the Klumpke-Roberts Fund in honor of her parents and husband (her husband Isaac Roberts had been one of the premier astronomical photographers). Her endowment was redirected in 1974 to create the Klumpke-Roberts Award.
