Michael A'Hearn
| Michael A'Hearn | |
|---|---|
|
Photograph of A'Hearn. | |
| Born |
November 17, 1940 Wilmington, Delaware |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Alma mater |
Boston College University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Notable awards | Gerard P. Kuiper Prize |
Michael Francis A'Hearn (born November 17, 1940) is an American astronomer and professor at the University of Maryland.[1] He is also the principal investigator for NASA's EPOXI mission.
Career
He received his B.A. in science at Boston College and his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He was the principal investigator for the NASA Deep Impact mission. He has aided in the development of systems for surveying abundances in comets as well as techniques for determining the sizes of cometary nuclei which uses optical and infrared measurements.
His studies focus on comets as well as asteroids and he also supervises numerous graduate students. He is an elected fellow of the AAAS. He has authored over 100 papers published in journals and is also an avid sailor who has a commercial coast guard license.[2]
In 1986, Asteroid 3192 was named after A'Hearn to honor his contributions to cometary science.
In 2008, he received the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize.
Honors
Awards
- Gerard P. Kuiper Prize (2008)
Eponym
- 3192 A'Hearn, an asteroid named after A'Hearn
References
External links
- Michael F. A'Hearn's homepage
- Kuiper Prize website of the American Astronomical Society
- Nasa bio on Deep Impact website
|