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Belinda Wilkes

Center for Astrophysics
Former Director, Chandra X-ray Center, and Senior Astrophysicist, SAO

About

Belinda Wilkes was born in Staffordshire, England and grew up in Albrighton, Shropshire, attending Wolverhampton Girls' High School before studying Physics and Astronomy at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland followed by a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Cambridge, England. In 1982 she moved to the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory as a NATO postdoctoral fellow and in 1984 to SAO's High Energy Astrophysics Division, At SAO she has worked on the Einstein X-ray Observatory, the ROSAT X-ray Observatory and, since 1995, the Chandra X-ray Center, where she served as Director from April 2014-Sept 2020.

Her research relates to multi-wavelength studies of quasars: galaxies containing super-massive black holes at their centers and the most luminous sources in the Universe.

B.Sc Hons (St.And) PhD (Cantab)