• Professor of physics in Arts & Sciences, Physics
• McDonnell Center Faculty Fellow, McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

• Ph.D. in Physics at University of Chicago
• B.S. in Engineering Physics at University of Toledo

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Extremely high energy Pinpointing origin of gamma rays from a supermassive black hole July 2, 2009 -- Download An international collaboration of 390 scientists reports the discovery of an outburst of very-high-energy gamma radiation from the giant radio galaxy Messier 87 (M 87), accompanied by a strong rise of the radio flux measured from the direct vicinity of its supermassive black hole. The combined results give first experimental evidence that particles are accelerated to extremely high energies in the immediate vicinity of a supermassive black hole and then emit the observed gamma rays. The gamma rays have energies a trillion times higher than the energy of visible light. Washington University in St. Louis physicists helped coordinate this cooperative project, the results of which appear in the July 2 Science Express, the advance online publication of the journal Science.

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He is playing a leading role in a major international collaboration and is a member of the multi-institution Whipple Observatory Collaboration, dedicated to ground-based studies of celestial objects that shine brightly in gamma rays of very high energies.

A founding member of the VERITAS project, the successor to Whipple, Buckley is the astrophysicist responsible for the essential technological breakthrough — Flash-Analog-to-Digital Converter — that gives VERITAS the edge over new gamma-ray telescopes around the world.

Working closely with Daniel J. Leopold, Ph.D., research associate professor in physics, Buckley is developing a new class of solid-state detectors for high-efficiency detection of very low levels of optical and ultraviolet light.

The improved detectors are expected to have significant applications in experimental physics as well as biomedical research.

In another project, Buckley has worked with a team to construct the Antipodal Transient Observatory. Two 0.5-meter optical telescopes are situated on opposite sides of the Earth, one in the Himalayas and the other in Arizona.

For the first time, these telescopes enable nearly continuous monitoring of gamma-ray sources that are visible in the spectrum. From these, correlations can be established.

He also has had a central role in observations of a subspecies of active galaxies that led to the discovery of markarian 501 and other sources of TeV gamma rays,