Robert Earl Jackson is a scientist, who, with Sandra M. Faber

Sandra M. Faber

Sandra Moore Faber is a University Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and works at the Lick Observatory.In 1966, she obtained a B.A., with high honors, in physics from Swarthmore College....

, in 1976 discovered the Faber-Jackson relation

Faber-Jackson relation

The Faber–Jackson relation is an early empirical power-law relation between the luminosity L and the central stellar velocity dispersion \sigma of elliptical galaxies, first noted by the astronomers Sandra M. Faber and Robert Earl Jackson in 1976...

 between the luminosity

Luminosity

Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...

 of an elliptical galaxy

Elliptical galaxy

An elliptical galaxy is a galaxy having an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless brightness profile. They range in shape from nearly spherical to highly flat and in size from hundreds of millions to over one trillion stars...

 and the velocity

Velocity

In physics, velocity is speed in a given direction. Speed describes only how fast an object is moving, whereas velocity gives both the speed and direction of the object's motion. To have a constant velocity, an object must have a constant speed and motion in a constant direction. Constant ...

 dispersion in its center.

Jackson was a graduate student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. As a Research Assistant for Faber, he contributed to the data analysis on the project that led to the Faber-Jackson relation (1976). Jackson received his Ph.D. in 1982 with the thesis titled "The Anisotropy

Anisotropy

Anisotropy is the property of being directionally dependent, as opposed to isotropy, which implies identical properties in all directions. It can be defined as a difference, when measured along different axes, in a material's physical or mechanical properties An example of anisotropy is the light...

 of the Hubble Constant

Hubble's law

Hubble's law is the name for the astronomical observation in physical cosmology that: all objects observed in deep space are found to have a doppler shift observable relative velocity to Earth, and to each other; and that this doppler-shift-measured velocity, of various galaxies receding from...

".

From 1984 to 1999, he worked for Computer Sciences Corporation at the Space Telescope Science Institute

Space Telescope Science Institute

The Space Telescope Science Institute is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope and for the James Webb Space Telescope...

 in Baltimore, Maryland.