Duncan Lorimer, Ph.D.

201 Woodburn Hall

Duncan Lorimer obtained a Ph.D. in 1994 for his contributions to pulsar astronomy from the University of Manchester in the U.K. under the supervision of Professors Andrew Lyne, Dick Manchester and Matthew Bailes. Since then he has held positions at the University of Manchester (Lecturer,1994-1995); the Max-Planck-Institute for Radio Astronomy (Postdoctoral Fellow, 1995-1998); Cornell University (Postdoctoral Fellow, 1998-2001); University of Manchester (Royal Society Research Fellow, 2001-2006) and West Virginia University (Faculty, 2006-present).

While at WVU, Lorimer has served as associate and interim chair in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Along with his wife and fellow astrophysicist Maura McLaughlin, Lorimer has helped establish the Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology. Lorimer’s scholarly achievements have been recognized on several occasions: a Cottrell Scholar Award (2008) from the Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement and both the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and WVU’s recognition for excellence in teaching (2009, 2010) as well as the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award in the Physical Sciences (2019). 

Among his notable research achievements are his many contributions to our understanding of the population of pulsars and the discovery of Fast Radio Bursts. Since 1994, Lorimer has been a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and in 2018 he was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society. 

In January 2019, Lorimer was named associate dean for research in WVU's Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. In this role, he works with faculty, staff and students on a variety of partnerships that aim to keep the Eberly College at the cutting edge as well as expand in new areas of research and scholarship.