Brian D. Warner joined SSI as a co-investigator with Alan Harris in 2006. He attended the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs and Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, TX, majoring in physics. He received a Master of Astronomy degree from James Cook University, Queensland, Australia, in June 2005.
Since 1999 he has published more than 350 asteroid lightcurves in the Minor Planet Bulletin and been co-author on papers appearing in Nature and Icarus, as well as presenting posters at DPS 2006 and AAS 2007 (Hawaii). He was primary discoverer of five binary asteroids in the Hungaria family/group. These helped redirect theories about binary asteroid formation from planetary (tidal) encounters to the YORP effect (thermal re-radiation).
Warner’s book, A Practical Guide to Lightcurve Photometry and Analysis (Springer 2006, 2nd ed.), has been well-received and is being used to guide amateurs and small educational institutions into asteroid and variable star lightcurve photometry.
In addition to his work for SSI, Warner is Assistant Editor for the Minor Planet Bulletin, serves on the Board of Trustees for the Society for Astronomical Sciences, and is a full-member of the American Astronomical Society and Division of Planetary Sciences.
In 2007 he was named the first recipient of the Chambliss Award for Amateur Achievement presented by the AAS and received the Clyde Tombaugh Award for Creative Innovation in Astronomy from the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference for the development of commercial software used to model asteroid shapes and spin axes. He lives near Monument, CO, with his wife Margaret Miller.
