Mike Brown
Michael E. Brown has been an associate professor of planetary astronomy at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) since 2002. He was previously an assistant professor at Caltech from 1997–2002.Brown earned his A.B in physics from Princeton University in 1987. He did his graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he earned an M.A in astronomy in 1990 and Ph.D in astronomy in 1994.
He has co-discovered several trans-Neptunian objects:
- Quaoar (with Chad Trujillo)
- 2004 DW (with Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz) — possibly the largest Kuiper Belt object after Pluto.
- Sedna (with Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz) — thought to be the first inner Öpik-Oort cloud object.