DISCOVER Magazine Names Harvard Astronomer, Dr. David Charbonneau, 2007 Scientist of the Year

NEW YORK, Nov. 5  /PRNewswire/ -- DISCOVER magazine names Dr. David Charbonneau, the Harvard University astronomer renowned for his work with exoplanets, as its 2007 Scientist of the Year, in the December issue that hits newsstands November 13th.  DISCOVER's Scientist of the Year award recognizes the researcher who has made the most important contribution to science in the past year.  DISCOVER magazine editors also recognize finalists Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Dr. Hans Rosling for their pioneering research in health and statistics.

"Dr. David Charbonneau has made outstanding contributions to astronomy and enhanced our understanding of the world beyond the one we inhabit," said DISCOVER CEO Henry Donahue.  "DISCOVER's editors feel that our scientist of the year and our two finalists are setting the pace in their chosen disciplines and are at the cutting-edge of scientific exploration."

Canadian-born Dr. David Charbonneau is thirty-three years old and has been a member of Harvard's faculty since 2004.  His research focuses on the development of novel techniques for the detection and characterization of planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars.  This field of study is considered one of the most promising leads towards the discovery of life beyond earth. Charbonneau's groundbreaking research aims to prove whether there are other beings in the universe or if we on Earth are truly unique.

Charbonneau is a founding member of the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey, which relies on small, automated telescopes to monitor thousands of stars for periodic eclipses that indicate the passage of orbiting planets.  In 1999, Charbonneau and his team made international news with the first observation of such an eclipse.  Using the Hubble Space Telescope, they further detected the exoplanet's atmosphere, marking the first-ever measurement of this rare type of celestial phenomenon.

First finalist Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn is the Morris Herzstein Professor of Biology and Physiology at the University of California, San Francisco.  She is the leading researcher in the field of telomeres, regions of highly repetitive DNA found at the end of chromosomes, and their relationships to aging and disease.  Currently, her team is testing the applications of this research for cancer treatment, using a range of human breast, prostate and bladder cancer cells.  Blackburn has been honored with winning the Lasker, the Gruber and the Gairdner prizes and has made the list of Time magazine's 100 most influential people.

Second finalist, Dr. Hans Rosling, is a medical doctor and statistician who is Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.  Dr. Rosling is well-known for identifying konzo, a new paralytic disease induced by hunger in rural Africa.  His research has focused extensively on links between economic development, agriculture, poverty and health in Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Dr. Rosling also organized Trendalyzer, a tool for creating animations which explain the effect of economic and social statistics on the state of a population's health through time.  Google recently purchased Trendalyzer, making it easily accessible to a large scale audience.  Rosling feels that his software will provide the information necessary to establish public policies that can ultimately help fight disease and poverty.  When he is not busy interpreting statistics, Rosling fills his free time swallowing swords.

Last year's Scientist of the Year, Dr. Jay Keasling, is a professor of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering at University of California, Berkeley. Keasling was honored for his groundbreaking work in the field of synthetic biology, including treatments for malaria, AIDS, and cancer, as well as discoveries of new fuel resources.  The full story can be found online at http://www.discovermagazine.com/2006/dec/cover/.

More information about this year's awards is online at http://www.discovermagazine.com/.

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DISCOVER poses essential questions and tackles highly topical, sometimes controversial issues on the cutting edge of science, technology and the future. The magazine's mandate is to unlock the mysteries of science in a way that reveals its wonder and captures the imagination of its readers. Every month, DISCOVER features the groundbreaking innovators and seminal thought leaders in science and technology who are shaping tomorrow's world today. DISCOVER is published by DISCOVER Media LLC.

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