Stephen E. Thorsett
| Stephen E. Thorsett | |
|---|---|
| 25th President of Willamette University |
|
|
In office July 1, 2011 – present |
|
| Preceded by | M. Lee Pelton |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
December 3, 1964 New Haven, Connecticut |
| Alma mater |
Carleton College Princeton University |
| Profession |
dean professor |
Stephen Erik Thorsett (born December 3, 1964) is an American professor and astronomer. His research interests include radio pulsars and gamma ray bursts. He is known for measurements of the masses of neutron stars and for the use of binary pulsars to test the theory of general relativity. Thorsett was a professor and dean at the University of California, Santa Cruz, before becoming president of Willamette University in July 2011.
Stephen Thorsett and his twin brother, David Thorsett, were born in New Haven, Connecticut, on December 3, 1964, to Grant Thorsett and his wife, Karen. Stephen grew up in Salem, Oregon, where his parents moved after he was born, and where his father was a biology professor at Willamette University. After attending elementary school and junior high in Salem, he graduated from South Salem High School in 1983. During his youth he earned money picking berries, and with several jobs at Willamette.
Following high school, he attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. There he received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics in 1987, graduating summa cum laude. Thorsett then earned a Master of Arts degree in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1991 in physics from Princeton University. With graduate school classmates Nathan Newbury, Michael J. Newman, John Ruhl, and Suzanne Staggs he is the author of the textbook Princeton Problems in Physics while at Princeton in 1991.
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