| Harold Zirin | |
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(1977)
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| Born | October 7, 1929 Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
| Citizenship | USA |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Harvard University, Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Philip M. Morse (MIT) |
Harold "Hal" Zirin (born October 7, 1929) is a retired American solar astronomer.
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While born in Boston, Harold Zirin was raised in the Bronx, New York and Bridgeport, Connecticut. Harold Zirin received a Pepsi-Cola Scholarship to Harvard University at age 16 and received his bachelors degree in 1950. Remaining at Harvard, Zirin received his masters one year later and finished his PhD in Astronomy in 1953.
After Harvard, Harold Zirin moved to Colorado to work at the High Altitude Observatory. Harold married his wife, Mary Fleming, in 1961 in Colorado. Harold and Mary adopted a son in 1963 and a daughter in 1964 shortly before moving to Pasadena, California to start his professorship with Caltech.
After retiring from Caltech in 1998, Harold is still living with his wife Mary in the Pasadena area.
In 1953, Zirin started work for the RAND Corporation in southern California but failed security clearances due to his father's ties with the Communist Party. Zirin then returned to Harvard for a postdoc research position.
In the mid-50s, Zirin moved to Colorado to work at the High Altitude Observatory.
In 1964, Zirin moved to Pasadena, California to become a professor at the California Institute of Technology. In 1965, Harold Zirin started researching potential sites for a new solar observatory choosing Big Bear Lake, California. In 1967, construction started on Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) and observations began in 1969. In 1988, Zirin authored the college text Astrophysics of the Sun.[1][2] In 1997, control of BBSO was moved from Caltech to the New Jersey Institute of Technology just prior to Harold Zirin's retirement from Caltech in 1998.