American astrophysicist and professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley and was subsequently appointed to a faculty position at the same institution. He was later named a Miller Research Professor for Spring 1996 and Spring 2005. Filippenko was awarded the Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy in 1992 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2000. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. In addition to recognition for his scholarship, he has received numerous honors for his undergraduate teaching. The UC Berkeley student body has also voted him nine times as their "Best Professor" on campus. Filippenko is frequently featured in the History Channel series "The Universe." He is the author of and teacher in an eight-volume teaching series on DVD called "Understanding the Universe." His research focuses on supernovae and active galaxies at optical, ultraviolet, and near-infrared wavelengths. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less