| | 41 | Name: | Dr. Malvin A. Ruderman | | | Institution: | Columbia University | | | Year Elected: | 1996 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1927 | | | | | | |
Malvin A. Ruderman is Centennial Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Columbia University. His main research interests in recent years have been the structure of neutron stars and how these objects convert so much of the spin-energy which they have when they are formed into beams of high energy radiation. Dr. Ruderman holds a B.A. from Columbia (1945) and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology (1951). Among his recent publications is "A Biography of the Magnetic Field of a Neutron Star" (2004). | |
| 42 | Name: | Dr. Allan Rex Sandage | | | Institution: | Observatories of Carnegie Institution of Washington | | | Year Elected: | 1995 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1926 | | | Death Date: | November 13, 2010 | | | | | | |
Astronomer Allan Sandage combined his impressive astronomical knowledge with outstanding scientific judgment and an extraordinary ability to discern new concepts that were ripe for development. Based at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1956 until his death, he was best known for his extended work establishing the rate of expansion of the universe (the red-shift distance or Hubble relationship). He was also noted for his discovery in the M-82 galaxy of jets erupting from the core, and for having conducted important spectral studies of globular clusters. Dr. Sandage received his Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 1953, and he had also served as Homewood Professor of Physics at Johns Hopkins University and as a senior research scientist at NASA's Space Telescope Scientific Institute. His many honors include the Warner Prize (1960), the Eddington Medal (1963), the National Medal of Science (1970), the Bruce Medal (1975) and the Crafoord Prize (1991). Allan Sandage died November 13, 2010, at age 84, in San Gabriel, California. | |
| 43 | Name: | Dr. Maarten Schmidt | | | Institution: | California Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2000 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1929 | | | Death Date: | September 17, 2022 | | | | | | |
Maarten Schmidt's discovery of the true distance of quasi-stellar objects expanded the dimensions of the known universe at the time (1963) by many orders of magnitude. His early work in galactic structure and in developing mass models for the Galaxy is also of great import. Dr. Schmidt and his collaborators have carried out several innovative surveys for quasars, improving in sensitivity and probing further in space as technological improvements permitted. He developed an optimal statistical technique (the V/V max test) for estimating the mean distance of a complete brightness limited sample, which has found widespread application in many fields. In 2008 he was awarded the first Kavli Prize in astrophysics for this work. In addition to holding many administrative positions within the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Schmidt served as president of the American Astronomical Society from 1984-86 and as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Universities Research in Astronomy from 1992-95. He has been Francis L. Moseley Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Cal Tech since 1996. | |
| 44 | Name: | Dr. Martin Schwarzschild | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1981 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1912 | | | Death Date: | 4/10/97 | | | | |
| 45 | Name: | Dr. Sara Seager | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2018 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1971 | | | | | | |
Sara Seager is an astrophysicist, planetary scientist and Class of 1941 Professor at the Massachussetts Institute of Technology. Her research aims to find exoplanets similar to Earth that meet the conditions for life. Her invetigations include work on transmission spectroscopy that led to the first ever detection of an exoplanet atmosphere. She did ground-breaking work on atmospheric retrieval and the brightness variability of terrestrial exoplanetsShe was co-investigator on TESS, a NASA Explorer Mission launched in April 2018, was chair of the NASA Science and Technology Definition Team for a Probe-class Starshade, and co-chairs the concept team for the NASA Habitable Planet Imaging Mission. Sara Seager was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2018. | |
| 46 | Name: | Dr. Irwin I. Shapiro | | | Institution: | Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University & Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 1998 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1929 | | | | | | |
Irwin Shapiro formerly directed the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, arguably the world's largest astronomical research institution, and has been Timken University Professor at Harvard since 1997 and Schlumberger Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1985. He proposed and, with colleagues, verified the fourth test of general relativity, now called the "Shapiro effect." With a former student he initiated the revolution in geodesy based on the use of GPS signals to determine via interferometry the vector distance between points on the Earth with errors at the millimeter level. Strongly advocating improved pre-college science teaching, he has sponsored a cutting-edge educational group at the Center for Astrophysics and has guided the preparation of imaginative new texts and hands-on materials. Dr. Shapiro holds a Ph.D. in physics from Harvard (1955) and is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1969); the National Academy of Sciences (1974); and the American Astronomical Society (division chairman, 1970-71) and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Geophysical Union; and the American Physical Society. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1998. | |
| 47 | Name: | Dr. Frank H. Shu | | | Institution: | National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan | | | Year Elected: | 2003 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | Death Date: | April 22, 2023 | | | | | | |
In 2003 Frank Shu left his University Professor position at the University of California, Berkeley to become president of "Taiwan's MIT," National Tsing Hua University. In 2007, he returned to the University of California - this time UC San Diego. He initially made his reputation with the density wave theory of spiral arms in spiral galaxies (with C.C. Lin) and has developed a picture of how stars are formed in pressure waves in these gas clouds. His work on star formation today provides the basic framework guiding both theory and observation. More recently he has turned to the distribution of chondrules in meteorites to help understand the formation of planets from stellar disks. A particularly lucid lecturer, his text, The Physical Universe, is considered "the Feynman Lectures of astronomy." Dr. Shu was awarded the Shaw Prize in Astrophysics in 2009. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1987); the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1992); the Academia Sinica; and the American Astronomical Society (president, 1994-96). | |
| 48 | Name: | Dr. David Nathaniel Spergel | | | Institution: | Simons Foundation; Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 2022 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1961 | | | | | | |
David Spergel is the President of the Simons Foundation and is the Charles Young Professor of Astronomy Emeritus at Princeton. Spergel received his AB from Princeton in 1982, spent a year at Oxford studying with James Binney and then received his PhD from Harvard in 1986. After spending a year at the IAS, he joined the Princeton faculty in 1987. He was Department Chair at Princeton from 2005-2015 and was the Founding Director at the Center for Computational Astrophysics at the Flatiron Institute from 2016-2021. AMNH awarded him an Honorary D.Sc. (2021).
Spergel is a member of the NAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His work has been recognized with a MacArthur Fellowship, a Sloan Fellowship, the Presidential Young Investigator Award, the Shaw Prize, the Heinemann Prize, the Gruber Prize and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The American Astronomical Society has honored him with the Warner Prize, the Heineman Prize and as a Legacy Fellow. He was twice awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Award. He received Princeton University’s Presidential Distinguished Teaching Award and the National Society of Black Physicists’ Mentorship Award.
Spergel is noted for his work on the WMAP satellite that help establish the standard model of cosmology, map the initial conditions of the universe, and determine its basic properties. He is the author of over 400 refereed papers with over 100,000 citations. | |
| 49 | Name: | Dr. Lyman Spitzer | | | Institution: | Princeton University | | | Year Elected: | 1959 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1914 | | | Death Date: | 3/31/97 | | | | |
| 50 | Name: | Dr. Edward C. Stone | | | Institution: | Thirty Meter Telescope International Observatory; California Institute of Technology; Jet Propulsion Laboratory | | | Year Elected: | 1993 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1936 | | | Death Date: | June 9, 2024 | | | | | | |
Edward C. Stone is the David Morrisroe Professor of Physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and director emeritus of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has also served as chair of Caltech's Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy and oversaw the development of the Keck Observatory as Vice President for Astronomical Facilities and chairman of the California Association for Research in Astronomy. He is also a director of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Since 1972, Dr. Stone has been the project scientist for the Voyager Mission at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, coordinating the scientific study of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune and Voyager's continuing exploration of the outer heliosphere and search for the edge of interstellar space. Following his first instrument on a Discoverer satellite in 1961, Dr. Stone has been a principal investigator on eight NASA spacecraft and a co-investigator on five others, all carrying instruments for studying galactic cosmic rays, solar energetic particles, and planetary magnetospheres. Dr. Stone is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, president of the International Academy of Astronautics, and a vice president of COSPAR. Among his awards and honors, Dr. Stone received the National Medal of Science from President George H.W. Bush (1991), the Magellanic Premium from the American Philosophical Society, and Distinguished Service Medals from NASA. In 1996, asteroid (5841) was named after him. In 2015 he was awarded the Alumni Medal from the University of Chicago. | |
| 51 | Name: | Dr. Bengt G.D Strömgren | | | Year Elected: | 1973 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1908 | | | Death Date: | 7/4/87 | | | | |
| 52 | Name: | Dr. Rashid Alievich Sunyaev | | | Institution: | Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Germany; Russian Space Research Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2007 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1943 | | | | | | |
Rashid Alievich Sunyaev is director of the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics and chief scientist of the Russian Academy of Sciences's Space Research Institute. Hailing from the former Asian Soviet Republic of Uzbekistan, he became one of the most important and prolific members of the Moscow group that pioneered relativistic astrophysics. Together with its leader Yakov Zel'dovich, he studied the relic radiation from the Big Bang, formulating the so-called Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect, which has led to early tests of cosmological models that are still valid and which have provided impetus to one of the most active areas of observational cosmology. Through continuing collaborations around the globe, Sunyaev has served as a particularly effective scientific bridge between East and West. In 2010, he was appointed to a three year term as the Maureen and John Hendricks Visiting Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to the 2008 Crafoord prize, he has received a range of awards including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1995), the Gruber Cosmology Prize (2003), the Heineman Prize in Astrophysics (2003), the King Faisal International Prize for Science (2009), the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences (2011), and the Franklin Medal from the Franklin Institute (2012). He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina, and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He was elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society in 2007. | |
| 53 | Name: | Dr. Jill Cornell Tarter | | | Institution: | SETI Institute | | | Year Elected: | 2024 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1944 | | | | | | |
Jill Tarter received her Bachelor of Engineering Physics Degree with Distinction from Cornell University and her Master’s Degree and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as Project Scientist for NASA’s SETI program, the High Resolution Microwave Survey, and has conducted numerous observational programs at radio observatories worldwide. Since the termination of funding for NASA’s SETI program in 1993, she has served in a leadership role to secure private funding to continue the exploratory science. Currently, she serves on the management board for the Allen Telescope Array, an innovative array of 350 (when fully realized) 6-m antennas at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory, it will simultaneously survey the radio universe for known and unexpected sources of astrophysical emissions, and speed up the search for radio emissions from other distant technologies by orders of magnitude.
Tarter’s work has brought her wide recognition in the scientific community, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, two Public Service Medals from NASA, Chabot Observatory’s Person of the Year award (1997), Women of Achievement Award in the Science and Technology category by the Women’s Fund and the San Jose Mercury News (1998), and the Tesla Award of Technology at the Telluride Tech Festival (2001). She was elected an AAAS Fellow in 2002 and a California Academy of Sciences Fellow in 2003. In 2004 Time Magazine named her one of the Time 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2005 Tarter was awarded the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization at Wonderfest, the biannual San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science.
Tarter is deeply involved in the education of future citizens and scientists. In addition to her scientific leadership at NASA and SETI Institute, Tarter was the Principal Investigator for two curriculum development projects funded by NSF, NASA, and others. The first, the Life in the Universe series, created 6 science teaching guides for grades 3-9 (published 1994-96). Her second project, Voyages Through Time, is an integrated high school science curriculum on the fundamental theme of evolution in six modules: Cosmic Evolution, Planetary Evolution, Origin of Life, Evolution of Life, Hominid Evolution and Evolution of Technology (published 2003). Tarter is a frequent speaker for science teacher meetings and at museums and science centers, bringing her commitment to science and education to both teachers and the public. Many people are now familiar with her work as portrayed by Jodie Foster in the movie Contact. | |
| 54 | Name: | Dr. Patrick Thaddeus | | | Institution: | Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 2011 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1932 | | | Death Date: | April 28, 2017 | | | | | | |
Pat Thaddeus’ astronomy research career centered on molecules. His pioneering and sophisticated laboratory methods of generating exotic molecules that might be observable in space, and measuring their spectra so as to be able to find these molecules in space through these microwave spectral signatures, enabled him to be without peer in this field. He and his group have thus discovered approximately 20 percent of the approximate 160 molecules now known to exist in interstellar space. His most important discoveries ranged from (unexpected) long carbon-chain molecules to (even more unexpected) negative ions, all of which have had a major impact on our understanding of the chemistry of interstellar space. He and his group have also conducted truly unique large-scale surveys of interstellar carbon monoxide which is a proxy for the difficult to observe hydrogen molecule; the high point of these surveys was the production of an exquisite, detailed map of our galaxy in three dimensions (radial velocity as well as sky coordinates), which now adorns walls in observatories world wide and has led to many further advances in our understanding of the structure of the Milky Way Galaxy. He earned his Ph.D. in 1960 from Columbia University. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1987 and of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 1989, and received the Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 2001 and the Sir Harold Thompson Memorial Award in 2002. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2011. Patrick Thaddeus died April 28, 2017, at the age of 84. | |
| 55 | Name: | Dr. Alar Toomre | | | Institution: | Massachusetts Institute of Technology | | | Year Elected: | 2016 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1937 | | | | | | |
Alar Toomre has been a true pioneer with his elegant and prescient studies, starting more than 40 years ago, of the evolution of the structure of galaxies. He introduced to these studies numerical simulations at a time when very clever approaches were needed to obtain useful results, due to the limitations of computer capabilities in that era. He also developed the deep stability criterion, the so-called Q criterion, for differentially rotating stellar disks. He was, in addition, the first to suggest and demonstrate that elliptical galaxies result from collisions of spiral galaxies. His early studies of galactic mergers were spectacular achievements. Overall, Toomre’s work has had a profound influence on the understanding of galactic dynamics and has largely set the direction of research in this now very vigorous and active field. Finally he made some substantial contributions to our understanding of the motions of the Earth about its center of mass. Among other awards, Toomre was awarded the 2014 Magellanic Premium of the American Philosophical Society in recognition of his beautiful and prescient numerical simulations over 40 years ago of the interactions of galaxies ("Galactic Bridges and Tails," carried out with his brother, Juri), and for his development a half century ago of the key local stability criterion (the "Q" criterion) for differentially rotating disks in galaxies. | |
| 56 | Name: | Dr. J. Anthony Tyson | | | Institution: | University of California, Davis | | | Year Elected: | 2000 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1940 | | | | | | |
J. Anthony Tyson received a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Wisconsin in 1967. He joined the technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories in 1969 and was Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (now Lucent Technologies) from 1985-2004. Since 2004 he has been Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics at University of California, Davis. He is currently director of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project. Dr. Tyson's research emphasis has been in experimental gravitation and cosmology. Applying advanced imaging with CCDs, he discovered "faint blue galaxies." Using this backdrop of billions of galaxies, he developed a technique for imaging foreground dark matter concentrations via their gravitational lensing of the distant galaxies. Gravitational lensing, it is believed, will go a long way toward solving the question of how much dark matter there is in the universe and where it is. Eventually, gravitational lensing will help to understand how structure formed in the universe. Dr. Tyson is the recipient of the Gravity Research Foundation Essay Award (1970), IR100 Award, Industrial Research (1985), and the Aaronson Memorial Prize (1996). He is a member of American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in 2000. | |
| 57 | Name: | Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson | | | Institution: | American Museum of Natural History | | | Year Elected: | 2021 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Living
| | | Birth Date: | 1958 | | | | | | |
Neil deGrasse Tyson was born and raised in New York City where he was educated in the public schools clear through his graduation from the Bronx High School of Science. Tyson went on to earn his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia.
In 2001, Tyson was appointed by President Bush to serve on a twelve-member commission that studied the Future of the U.S. Aerospace Industry. The final report was published in 2002 and contained recommendations (for Congress and for the major agencies of the government) that would promote a thriving future of transportation, space exploration, and national security.
In 2004, Tyson was once again appointed by President Bush to serve on a nine-member commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy, dubbed the “Moon, Mars, and Beyond” commission. This group navigated a path by which the new space vision can become a successful part of the American agenda. And in 2006, the head of NASA appointed Tyson to serve on its prestigious Advisory Council, which guides NASA through its perennial need to fit ambitious visions into restricted budgets.
In addition to dozens of professional publications, Dr. Tyson has written, and continues to write for the public. From 1995 to 2005, Tyson was a monthly essayist for Natural History magazine under the title Universe. And among Tyson’s fifteen books is his memoir The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist; and Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution, co-written with Donald Goldsmith. Origins is the companion book to the PBS NOVA four-part mini-series Origins, in which Tyson served as on-camera host. The program premiered in September 2004.
Two of Tyson’s other books are the playful and informative Death By Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries, which was a New York Times bestseller, and The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet, chronicling his experience at the center of the controversy over Pluto’s planetary status. The PBS NOVA documentary The Pluto Files, based on the book, premiered in March 2010.
In February 2012, Tyson released his tenth book, containing every thought he has ever had on the past, present, and future of space exploration: Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier.
For five seasons, beginning in the fall of 2006, Tyson appeared as the on-camera host of PBS NOVA’s spinoff program NOVA ScienceNOW, which is an accessible look at the frontier of all the science that shapes the understanding of our place in the universe.
During the summer of 2009 Tyson identified a cadre of professional standup comedians to assist his effort in bringing science to commercial radio with the NSF-funded pilot program StarTalk. Now also a popular Podcast, for three years it enjoyed a limited-run Television Series on the National Geographic Channel. StarTalk combines celebrity guests with informative yet playful banter. The target audience is all those people who never thought they would, or could, like science. In its first year on television and in three successive seasons, it was nominated for a Best Informational Programming Emmy.
Tyson is the recipient of twenty-one honorary doctorates and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the highest award given by NASA to a non-government citizen. His contributions to the public appreciation of the cosmos have been recognized by the International Astronomical Union in their official naming of asteroid “13123 Tyson.” And by zoologists, with the naming of Indirani Tysoni, a native species of leaping frog in India. On the lighter side, Tyson was voted “Sexiest Astrophysicist Alive” by People Magazine in 2000.
More recently, Tyson published Astrophysics for People In A Hurry in 2017, which was a domestic and international bestseller. This adorably readable book is an introduction to all that you’ve read and heard about that’s making news in the universe—consummated, in one place, succinctly presented, for people in a hurry.
That was followed in 2018 by Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military, coauthored with Avis Lang, in 2019 by Letters from an Astrophysicist, both New York Times Bestsellers, and in 2021 by Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We are Going, coauthored with James Trefil.
Tyson served as Executive Science Editor and on-camera Host & Narrator for Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey, the 21st century continuation of Carl Sagan’s landmark television series. The show began in March 2014 and ran thirteen episodes in primetime on the FOX network, and appeared in 181 countries in 45 languages around the world on the National Geographic Channels. Cosmos won four Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award, two Critics Choice awards, as well as a dozen other industry recognitions. Tyson reprised his role as on-camera host for the next season of Cosmos—Cosmos: Possible Worlds, which premiered on the National Geographic Channel in March 2020 and on the FOX network in September 2020.
Tyson is the fifth head of the world-renowned Hayden Planetarium in New York City and the first occupant of its Frederick P. Rose Directorship. He is also a research associate of the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History.
Neil deGrasse Tyson lives in New York City with his wife, a former IT project manager with Bloomberg Financial Markets. | |
| 58 | Name: | Dr. Fred L. Whipple | | | Institution: | Harvard University | | | Year Elected: | 1956 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | Resident | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1906 | | | Death Date: | August 30, 2004 | | | | |
| 59 | Name: | Dr. J. Paul Wild | | | Institution: | CSIRO Australia | | | Year Elected: | 1962 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1923 | | | Death Date: | May 10, 2008 | | | | | | |
Australian radio astronomer J. Paul Wild was the first person to recognize the true nature of radio noise originating in solar disturbances. An ingenious experimentalist and excellent interpreter of observational data, he was affiliated with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization for over sixty years, serving as chairman (1978-85), chief of the division of radiophysics (1971-77) and chief research officer in charge of solar research (1961-71). He held an M.A. degree from Cambridge, was awarded the 1984 ANZAAS Medal and was a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Paul Wild Observatory in Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia is named in his honor. Dr. Wild died on May 10, 2008, in Australia, at the age of 85. | |
| 60 | Name: | Sir Robert Wilson | | | Institution: | University College of London | | | Year Elected: | 1996 | | | Class: | 1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences | | | Subdivision: | 101. Astronomy | | | Residency: | International | | | Living? : |
Deceased
| | | Birth Date: | 1938 | | | Death Date: | September 2, 2002 | | | | |
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