Danny Milisavljevic named Purdue University Faculty Scholar
2025-04-15
Danny Milisavljevic, associate professor of Physics and Astronomy with the Purdue College of Science, has been selected as a University Faculty Scholar by the Office of the Provost.
The University Faculty Scholars Program recognizes outstanding faculty members who are on an accelerated path for academic distinction. Recipients of this honor have the rank of tenured associate or full professor and have been in that rank for no more than five years. Faculty scholars are nominated by their academic areas, reviewed by a committee in the College of Science, and approved by the provost. Faculty Scholars are appointed for a five-year term and receive an annual $10,000 discretionary allocation to support their research. The program was created in 1998. Professor Milisavljevic will begin his five-year term on July 1, 2025.
Associate Professor Danny Milisavljevic started his research in astronomy as an undergraduate at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, in the field of solar system dynamics. He was awarded a Commonwealth Fellowship to study philosophy and history of science at the London School of Economics and Political Science in London, England. His master’s thesis was on the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics. Then, he began his PhD research at Dartmouth College on the explosion dynamics and progenitor systems of supernovae, which he continues to do so today.
Following Dartmouth, he began his professional career as an astrophysicist at Harvard University in 2011 and became a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in 2014. Now, with Purdue University, Milisavljevic’s research includes compact object remnants of supernovae, massive star mass loss, stellar feedback and chemical enrichment of galaxies and the intra-cluster medium, and the formation and destruction of dust and molecules and their relation to the origin of organic matter in the universe.
Milisavljevic was one of the first astrophysicists to use the James Webb Space Telescope, the world’s largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space. His recent work has been featured by the White House and various news outlets, including interviews on CBS 60 Minutes and CNN.
When asked what this accomplishment means to him, Milisavljevic says, "Receiving the Faculty Scholar award is a profound honor. This recognition fuels my passion to continue pushing the boundaries of discovery and igniting a sense of wonder in students about the vast possibilities of space exploration.”
Current and former Purdue University Faculty Scholars
- Danny Milisavljevic: 2025 – 2030
- Qi Zhou: 2024 – 2029
- Toncang Li: 2023 – 2028
- Yulia Pushkar: 2020 - 2025
- Maxim Lyutikov: 2018 – 2023
- Matthew Lister: 2017 – 2022
- Michael Manfra: 2014 – 2019
- Yong Chen: 2013 – 2018
- Martin Kruczenski: 2012 – 2017
- Fuqiang Wang: 2008 – 2013
- Wei Cui: 2006 – 2011
- David Nolte: 2003 – 2008
- Sergei Khlebnikov: 2001 – 2006
- Laura Pyrak-Nolte: 2000 – 2005
- Daniela Bortoletto: 1999 – 2004
About the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Purdue University
Purdue’s Department of Physics and Astronomy has a rich and long history dating back to 1904. Our faculty and students are exploring nature at all length scales, from the subatomic to the macroscopic and everything in between. With an excellent and diverse community of faculty, postdocs and students who are pushing new scientific frontiers, we offer a dynamic learning environment, an inclusive research community and an engaging network of scholars.
Physics and Astronomy is one of the seven departments within the Purdue University College of Science. World-class research is performed in astrophysics, atomic and molecular optics, accelerator mass spectrometry, biophysics, condensed matter physics, quantum information science, and particle and nuclear physics. Our state-of-the-art facilities are in the Physics Building, but our researchers also engage in interdisciplinary work at Discovery Park District at Purdue, particularly the Birck Nanotechnology Center and the Bindley Bioscience Center. We also participate in global research including at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, many national laboratories (such as Argonne National Laboratory, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Fermilab, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the Stanford Linear Accelerator, etc.), the James Webb Space Telescope, and several observatories around the world.
Written by: David Siple, Communications Specialist, Purdue University Department of Physics and Astronomy