Lars Bildsten

Lars Bildsten is the Director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics and Professor of Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Bildsten is a theoretical astrophysicist focusing on the properties and behaviors of stars. His most recent research centers on time-domain astrophysics, wherein he tracks the dynamism of space by observing stellar changes.

Bildsten has received the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship; the Helen B. Warner Prize from the American Astronomical Society; and the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics, awarded jointly by the American Institute of Physics and AAS. He is a member of the National Academies of Science and legacy fellow of the AAS. He is chair of the Board of Directors of Las Cumbres Observatory.

Bildsten received a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Ohio State University and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Cornell University.