Ian P. Griffin

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Dr. Ian P. Griffin is the British director of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, in Manchester, UK. He is the former head of public outreach at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute. Griffin is a professional astronomer and notable public spokesman of scientific matters.

Dr Ian P. Griffin at the Space Telescope Science Institute. NASA image.
Dr Ian P. Griffin at the Space Telescope Science Institute. NASA image.

[edit] Biographical Information

Griffin began his professional life at University College London where he decided to pursue a career combining both astronomical research and public outreach. He was director of the Armagh Planetarium from 1990 to 1995. He then worked at The Astronaut Memorial Planetarium at Brevard Community College in the USA and Auckland Observatory in New Zealand before accepting the position as head of public outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, USA. [1].

In 2004, Griffin became director of the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry where he continues to work. [2]

[edit] Significant Achievements

In his time at Space Telescope, Griffin contributed to the observation and study of a scientifically significant binary asteroid system, known as 1998 WW31 [3]. This was only the second such binary system discovered in the Kuiper Belt (the other being the Pluto and Charon system) and provided valuable data helping astronomers understand the mass and behaviour of objects in the Kuiper Belt. [4] Griffin is also the discoverer and is responsible for naming of a number of main belt asteroids including 10924 (Mariagriffin) and 23990 (Springsteen) via search programmes using small telescopes.

[edit] References

  1. ^  Trifourki, Sotira (Manchester Astronomical Society) (2005). Observing Solar System Objects with the Hubble Space Telescope (http). Retrieved on Error: invalid time.
  2. ^  Ottewell, David. "Science museum lands space ace", Manchester News, 14 January 2004.
  3. ^  Christian Veillet, Joel Wm. Parker et al (2002). "The binary Kuiper-belt object 1998 WW31". Nature 416 (18 April 2002): 711–713. 
  4. ^  NASA STSci (April 17, 2002). Hubble Hunts Down Binary Objects at the Fringe of Our Solar System. Press release.
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