Department of Astronomy faculty members Marc Pinsonneault and Barbara Ryden have been awarded the 2026 Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award by the American Astronomical Society. The award is for the textbook Stellar Structure and Evolution (2023 Cambridge University Press) where Prof. Pinsonneault and and Prof. Ryden successfully incorporate innovative pedagogical features into this graduate-level text, emphasizing intuitive understanding through both qualitative and quantitative reasoning, with a clear and easy to follow progression of learning.

The Chambliss Astronomical Writing Award is for astronomy writing for an academic audience, specifically textbooks at either the upper-division undergraduate or graduate level. The motivation for this choice is the fact that introductory textbooks and popular astronomy books have large markets and a number of existing modes of recognition and reward. Books serving astronomy majors and graduate students, by contrast, have relatively small markets and excellence in this area is rarely recognized. Nonetheless, such books serve a vital role in professional development.