Henric Krawczynski was installed as the Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Distinguished Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis during a ceremony Feb. 29 at the Whittemore House. His installation lecture was titled “The Bright Side of Black Holes.”
Krawczynski is a member of the university’s McDonnell Center for Space Sciences and its Center for Quantum Leaps, a signature initiative of the Arts & Sciences strategic plan. He served as the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Physics from 2012-18 and is currently chair of the department. Krawczynski joined the university in 2002.
Krawczynski’s work encompasses experimental, observational and theoretical projects. He is the principal investigator of two NASA missions conducted on stratospheric balloons. The first mission, XL-Calibur, is used to study the X-ray emission from black hole-star binary systems. The second mission, DR-TES, tests quantum detectors in preparation for a larger mission with the potential of constraining the nature of dark matter. Krawczynski and his colleagues also use X-ray observations with NASA’s satellites to investigate astrophysical processes close to black holes and neutron stars.
Krawczynski has authored or co-authored over 275 peer-reviewed journal articles and one book, titled “Relativistic Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei.”
Wilfred R. Konneker, PhD ’50, was a pioneer in nuclear medicine and radiopharmaceuticals. He founded or co-founded numerous successful companies and ran the pharmaceutical division of Mallinckrodt. Konneker served four years on the university’s Board of Trustees and then served as a trustee emeritus from July 1997 until his death in 2016. Konneker and his wife, Ann Lee, made a commitment to establish the Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Distinguished Professorship in Physics in 1998.
