Marta Burgay

Marta Burgay (30 November 1976, Torino) is an Italian radio astronomer whose initial claim to fame was being the discoverer[http://www.atnf.csiro.au/news/press/neutron_binary/ Pulsar find boosts hope for gravity-wave hunters], CSIRO, 3 December 2003, accessed 2009-05-11[http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1124_1.asp New Binary Neutron Star Will Test Einstein] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203193830/http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1124_1.asp|date=2008-12-03}}, Robert Naeye, Sky and Telescope, 2003.12.12, accessed 2009-05-11[http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/3310106.html Einstein Passes New Tests], Robert Naeye, Sky and Telescope, 3 March 2005, accessed 2009-05-11 of PSR J0737-3039, the first double pulsar (two pulsars orbiting each other), through using the 64-metre Parkes radio telescope in Australia.

Awards and honors

Her Thesis on radio pulsars won the 2005 Pietro Tacchini Prize, awarded by the Italian Astronomical Society ({{langx|it|Società Astronomica Italiana|link=no}}) for the best Ph.D. thesis.{{citation | first=Marta | last1=Burgay | publisher=Cagliari Astronomical Observatory | title=Marta Burgay PhD Thesis | work=The Cagliari Pulsar Group | url=http://pulsar.oa-cagliari.inaf.it/pulsar/Tesi/BurgayPhd/ | accessdate=2012-01-03 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927200239/http://pulsar.oa-cagliari.inaf.it/pulsar/Tesi/BurgayPhd/ | archive-date=2013-09-27 | url-status=dead }}
In 2006, she became the first winner of the IUPAP's Young Scientists Prize in Astrophysics award.{{citation| title=The IUPAP young scientists prize in astrophysics| journal=Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions | volume=24 | issue=3 | pages=149 | publisher=Commission 19 (Astrophysics) of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics | url=http://www.iupap.org/commissions/c19/youngscie.html| accessdate=2012-01-03 | bibcode=2005A&AT...24..149F | last1=Fridman | first1=Alexia M. | year=2005 | doi=10.1080/10556790500481042 }}
In 2010, she was honoured with the Vainu Bappu Gold Medal by the Astronomical Society of India.{{cite web|url=http://www.astron-soc.in/awards.php#vainu_bappu|title=Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal|publisher=Astronomical Society of India|accessdate=June 10, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610132727/http://www.astron-soc.in/awards.php#vainu_bappu|archive-date=June 10, 2015|url-status=dead}}
Asteroid 198634 Burgaymarta, discovered at Vallemare di Borbona in 2005, was named in her honor. The official {{MoMP|198634|naming citation}} was published by the Minor Planet Center on 5 October 2017 ({{small|M.P.C. 106503}}).