Julian Shapiro is a 16 year old award-winning astronomer and astrophotographer from New York.

He began his journey in astronomy at a young age, inspired by space documentaries and photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. His passion in observing started at 12 after moving to a darker location, providing him the opportunity to observe the night sky in his backyard through a small tabletop telescope. After viewing the rings of Saturn with his own eyes, Julian was captivated by the intricate beauty of space, and attempted to capture the views in images, leading to discovering a new passion of astrophotography. Over the following years, he gradually expanded his skills and gained experience in observational astronomy.
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​Wanting to innovate in the field, Julian merged his interests in astronomical research with observational astronomy. In 2023, he started a large scale doubly ionized oxygen survey of the constellation Cygnus, resulting in the discovery of Shapiro-1 and the Leviathan Nebula, making him the youngest ever discoverer of a new nebula at 15. Following his discovery, Julian was awarded as winner of the Astrophotography Prize for Remote Imaging and as runner-up in the National Young Astronomy Award. In 2024, he continued his research in the field, discovering multiple new planetary nebula and supernova remnant candidates, as well as a candidate quasar light echo, a significant and extremely rare discovery of significant scientific value.