Stephen Smartt

Stephen J. Smartt FRS (born 9 November 1968) is an Irish astrophysicist who specializes in stellar evolution, supernovae and time domain sky surveys. He is credited with the discovery of stars that explode as supernovae, measuring their mass, luminosity and the chemical elements synthesized. He is a Professor of Astrophysics at the School of Mathematics and Physics at Queen's University Belfast.
Education.
Born and raised in Belfast, Stephen studied physics and applied mathematics at Queen’s University Belfast and was awarded a PhD in astrophysics in 1996.
Career.
He worked at the Isaac Newton Group of telescopes and held a fellowship at the University of Cambridge. Stephen returned to Belfast in 2004 and established a group working on stellar evolution, supernovae and time domain sky surveys.