| 1 | Name: | Dr. James Gunn | |
| Institution: | Princeton University | ||
| Year Elected: | 1987 | ||
| Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | ||
| Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Living | ||
| Birth Date: | 1938 | ||
James Edward Gunn is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy at Princeton University Observatory. His range of abilities, including great skill in physical theory and applied mathematics, an outstanding capability in the design of novel and powerful instruments, and extensive experience as an observational astronomer with a keen choice of central problems, is unique in astronomy. Dr. Gunn's early theoretical work helped establish the current understanding of how galaxies form and properties of the space between galaxies. He also suggested important observational tests to confirm the presence of dark matter in galaxies. Much of Dr. Gunn's later work has involved leadership in major observational projects. He developed plans for one of the first uses of digital camera technology for space observation, a project that led to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the most extensive three-dimensional mapping of the universe ever undertaken. Dr. Gunn has worked as a scientist at JPL and taught at the University of California, Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, the University of Chicago, and Rice University. He was a deputy principal investigator on the Wide Field/Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope, served as the associate director of the Apache Point Observatory and is a MacArthur Fellow. He was also a project scientist and technical director for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. His numerous honors include the Royal Astronomical Society's Gold Medal, the National Medal of Science (2009) and membership in the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Gunn earned his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1966 and has served on the faculty at Princeton since 1968. | |||