Professor Dan Marrone Named AAS Fellow for Pioneering Work in Radio and Submillimeter Astronomy
Dan Marrone, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, helped capture the first-ever image of a black hole and has been honored as an AAS Fellow in recognition of his significant contributions to modern radio and submillimeter astrophysics.
AAS Names 23 New Fellows for 2026: https://aas.org/press/aas-names-23-new-fellows-2026
This week, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) has named Steward Observatory's Dan Marrone as an AAS Fellow—an honor bestowed on less than 0.5% of AAS's membership each year.
Marrone, Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Astronomy and Astronomer at Steward Observatory, is being recognized for his significant contributions to modern radio and submillimeter astrophysics through innovative instrumentation, thus enabling transformative scientific discoveries across ground-based observatories, balloon-borne experiments, and space-based missions.
Marrone's research spans a diverse array of topics in galactic and extragalactic astronomy, including galaxy clusters and their cosmological applications, the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, the process of star formation, and star forming galaxies in the early universe. His work is distinguished by the development of cutting-edge instrumentation for telescopes around the world, primarily at centimeter to submillimeter wavelengths, which has opened new windows for astronomical observation and discovery.
As a member of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, Marrone has been instrumental in producing the first-ever images of black holes. He led the team's effort to capture the historic 2019 image of the supermassive black hole at the center of galaxy M87, located 55 million light-years from Earth. The EHT links telescopes across the globe—from California to Chile, from Greenland to the South Pole, and from France to Arizona—creating a planet-sized observatory.
Marrone serves as an EHT Science Council member, Principal Investigator of the receiving system for the South Pole Telescope, and Lead of the EHT Time Domain working group. He is responsible for building, installing, and maintaining the EHT receiving and recording system at the South Pole Telescope, as well as testing and operating the EHT observing systems for two Arizona telescopes: the Submillimeter Telescope on Mt. Graham and the 12-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. An expert on the polarization and variability of the Galactic Center black hole, Marrone's contributions span both the scientific analysis and hands-on instrumentation that made these groundbreaking observations possible. Read more about Marrone’s leadership in the quest to capture the first image of a black hole.
Professor Marrone is one of only 23 members being honored as AAS Fellows this year, in recognition of extraordinary achievement and service. This year's recipients are being celebrated for original research and publications, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy.
"I am truly honored to have been selected as an AAS Fellow," says Professor Marrone. "I am also very grateful to the many collaborators who have worked alongside me to build instruments for projects over my career, and to my colleagues at Steward Observatory and the University who have made it possible to pursue interesting new projects over the last 15 years."
In addition to his research accomplishments, Professor Marrone serves as Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Astronomy, where he plays a vital role in mentoring the next generation of astronomers and instrumentation developers.
