Roberto Abraham

Roberto Abraham is a Professor of Astronomy and Chair of the David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and served as President of  the Canadian Astronomical Society.

Prof. Abraham was born in Manila, grew up in San Francisco and Vancouver, and obtained his BSc from University of British Columbia before moving to the UK to obtain a doctorate from Oxford. He did postdoctoral work at the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Institute and at Cambridge University. Prof. Abraham’s work is focused on observations of galaxy formation and evolution and on the development of innovative scientific instruments, such as the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the Jackson-Gwilt Medal awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society, the Canadian Astronomical Society’s P. G. Martin Award, an NSERC Steacie Memorial Fellowship, a Canada Council for the Arts Killam Research Fellowship, a Premier’s Research Excellence Award, and the University of Toronto Outstanding Teaching Award. He has served on the Board of Directors of major international observatories, advised NASA and scientific funding agencies in various capacities and served as Canada’s representative on the James Webb Space Telescope Advisory Committee.

In addition to being a professional astronomer, Prof. Abraham has never given up his love of backyard astronomy, which set him on the road to being a scientist at age 12. His secret life as an amateur astronomer has led him to place tremendous value on outreach, and on the role of astronomy in stimulating the growth of scientific literacy. Astronomy is the gateway science for encouraging young people to embark on a host of STEM careers. This enthusiasm for outreach has led to him serve as the Honorary President of the Toronto Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada for many years. (Here is a Pro Tip: if you love astronomy and you live in Canada, you should definitely be a member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.)