An astronomer for more than 60 years, Professor Brian Warner has dedicated much of his research to the study of new and unusual phenomena. His interest in the area of the physics of compact stars and compact binaries has broadened the understanding of pulsating white dwarf stars and interacting binaries such as cataclysmic variable stars.
Warner started his education in Astronomy at University College, London, travelling to the Radcliffe Observatory in Pretoria to collect his doctoral material, and was later a Radcliffe Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford. After five years at the University of Texas in Austin, he was appointed the first professor of astronomy at the University of Cape Town where he was head of department until his retirement (with the title distinguished professor of natural philosophy). He is currently a senior scholar and emeritus professor at UCT’s department of astronomy. He has also served as director of the Lunar Section at the British Astronomical Association, and is a past vice-president of the International Astronomical Union. He has doctoral degrees from the University of London and from Oxford University, and a DSc degree, honoris causa, from UCT.
He has spent large amounts of observing time on the 40, 30 and 74-inch reflector telescopes at Sutherland, which provided him with considerable opportunities for research. His group was the first to carry out photometric observations of dwarf nova and quasi-period oscillations using the Southern African Large Telescope. He also has an interest in the history of astronomy, particularly of the people and work carried out at the Cape of Good Hope in the 19th century. His research in this area culminated in the publication of his book, Cape Landscapes: Sir John Herschel’s Sketches, 1834 – 1838, published in 2006. He has supervised/co-supervised more than 35 PhD and master’s students at UCT and the University of Texas.
Over the course of his career Warner has published/co-published 438 articles in journals such as the Astrophysical Journal, African Skies, and the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society and has authored or co-authored 18 books and numerous book chapters. He has also refereed for journals such as MNRAS, the Astrophysical Journal, and Astronomy & Astrophysics.
He has served on the boards of trustees of the South African Library and the South African Museum (as chairman, 1991-1999). He is an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, of the Royal Astronomical Society and of University College, London, and was a vice-president of the International Astronomical Union. He is the only honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand, a founding member of the Academy of Science of South Africa, a fellow of the Third World Academy of Science, a member of the Association Internationale de Bibliophilie, and a founding member of the Society of Bibliophiles in Cape Town.
Among other honours, he has been awarded the John Herschel Medal of the Royal Society of South Africa, the South Africa Medal of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, the Gill Medal of the Astronomical Society of South Africa, and the Science-for Society Gold Medal of the Academy of Science of South Africa.