Norman Murray

Norman William Murray is an American theoretical astrophysicist. He is a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and former director of the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics. Murray is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Astronomical Society, National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society of Canada, and American Physical Society.

Early life and education Murray was born in Los Angeles, California. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He began focusing on nonlinear dynamics during his graduate studies and continued in that field as postdoctoral researcher at Queen Mary University of London. After reaching out to astronomer Peter Goldreich, Murray was offered a second postdoctoral position at Caltech.

Career Murray left California in 1993 to accept a faculty position at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA), which was based out of the University of Toronto (U of T). This later developed into investigating how the radiation from star formation or active galactic nuclei can regulate the growth and luminosity of galaxies through momentum-driven winds. His early career research earned him the 1999 Newcomb Cleveland Award and a 2000 Province of Ontario Premier's Research Excellence Award. He was also appointed a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Astrophysics at U of T. While serving as director of CITA, Throughout his tenure at U of T and CITA, Murray shifted his focus to black holes, protoplanetary disks, and Earth's thermal tides. In 2022, he received the Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics. and American Astronomical Society. He was also one of 30 international researchers appointed a Member of the National Academy of Sciences.