Gibor Basri is an American astrophysicist, born in New York on May 3, 1951.

The son of Phyllis Basri, a professor of dance and ballet, and Saul Basri, professor of physics at the University of Colorado

University of Colorado

The University of Colorado system is a system of public universities in Colorado consisting of three universities in four campuses: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and University of Colorado Denver in downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in...

, Basri grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, together with his younger brother David. The family lived for brief periods in Burma (1957) and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

 (1965).

Basri graduated in physics at Stanford University

Stanford University

The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...

 in 1973, and received his Ph.D. in astrophysics at the University of Colorado in 1979. His thesis, under the supervision of Jeffrey Linsky, was on stellar activity, based on observations by the International Ultraviolet Explorer

International Ultraviolet Explorer

The International Ultraviolet Explorer was an astronomical observatory satellite primarily designed to take ultraviolet spectra. The satellite was a collaborative project between NASA, the UK Science Research Council and the European Space Agency...

 (IUE) satellite, of which he was one of the first users. A postdoctoral award took him to the U.C. Berkeley astronomy department where he has been a professor since 1994. His work there originally focused on high-energy observations of stars (with Stuart Bowyer). In the last decade he turned to studies of star formation

Star formation

Star formation is the process by which dense parts of molecular clouds collapse into a ball of plasma to form a star. As a branch of astronomy star formation includes the study of the interstellar medium and giant molecular clouds as precursors to the star formation process and the study of young...

 (with Len Kuhi). Basri's most noteworthy work includes a 1980 study of T Tauri-type stars

T Tauri star

T Tauri stars are a class of variable stars named after their prototype – T Tauri. They are found near molecular clouds and identified by their optical variability and strong chromospheric lines.-Characteristics:...

, and he is recognized as a world expert on brown dwarf

Brown dwarf

Brown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects which are too low in mass to sustain hydrogen-1 fusion reactions in their cores, which is characteristic of stars on the main sequence. Brown dwarfs have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...

 stars.

In 2011, as vice chancellor for equity and inclusion for the U.C. Berkeley campus, he served as a communicator between the university administration and students supporting the Occupy movement

Occupy movement

The Occupy movement is an international protest movement which is primarily directed against economic and social inequality. The first Occupy protest to be widely covered was Occupy Wall Street in New York City, taking place on September 17, 2011...

.