David Rubincam

David Perry Rubincam
Born	(1947-02-27) February 27, 1947
Nationality	USA
Fields	Geophysics
Institutions	National Academy of Sciences United States National Research Council Wolf Research and Development Group, EG&G, Inc. NASA

David Perry Rubincam, Ph.D. (born February 27, 1947) is an American geophysicist with specialties in solid-earth geophysics, planetary geodynamics and celestial mechanics. He has worked as a civilian scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since 1978. The main-belt asteroid 9921 Rubincam was named in his honor.^[1]

Education

He received a B.S. in Physics (1970), M.S. in Physics (1972), and Ph.D. in Physics (1973) from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Professional career

From 1974-1976 he served as a Resident Research Associate at the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council.

From 1976-1978 he served as Lead Analyst in Geophysics at Wolf Research and Development Group, EG&G, Inc.

From 1978 to present, he has served as a Geophysicist in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.^[2] He studies secular effects in the solar system such as tidal friction, the Yarkovsky effect, and the Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect (YORP) effect.^[3] One of his many contributions while at NASA was conducting research to understand the dynamics of orbital decay of artificial Earth satellites. Current interests include asteroids and asteroid pairs.^[4]

Society memberships

Rubincam is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Bibliography

• 2000 "Dynamical Evolution of Main Belt Meteoroids: Numerical Simulations Incorporating Planetary Perturbations and Yarkovsky Thermal Forces," W. F. Bottke, D. P. Rubincam, and J. A. Burns, Icarus, 145, 301-331.
• 1999 "Mars Secular Obliquity Change Due to Water Ice Caps," J. Geophys. Res., 104, 30,765-30,771.
• 1998 "The Incredible Shrinking Tropics," D. P. Rubincam, B. F. Chao, and B. G. Bills, Sky & Telescope, 95, [6], 36-38 (June).
• 1998 "Yarkovsky Thermal Drag on Small Asteroids and Mars-Earth Delivery," J. Geophys. Res., 103, 1725-1732.
• 1997 "Tidal Friction," in ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PLANETARY SCIENCES, edited by J. H. Shirley and R. W. Fairbridge, Chapman & Hall, New York, pp. 825–828.
• 1995 ""Has Climate Changed the Earth's Tilt?" Paleoceanography, 10, 365-372.
• 1995 "America's Foremost Early Astronomer," D.P. Rubincam and M. Rubincam, Sky & Telescope, 89, [5], 38-41 (May).
• 1995 "Asteroid Orbit Evolution Due to Thermal Drag," J. Geophys. Res., 100, 1585- 1594.
• 1994 "Isolation in Terms of Earth's Orbital Parameters," Theor. Appl. Climatol., 48, 195-20
• 1993 "The Obliquity of Mars and "Climate Friction," J. Geophys. Res, 98, 10, 827-10,832.
• 1993 "The Night the Titanic Went Down," D.P. Rubincam and D.D. Rowlands, Sky & Telescope, 86, [4], 79-83 (October).
• 1990 "Mars: Change in Axial Tilt Due to Climate?" Science, 248, 720-721.
• 1989 "The Gravitational Field of Phobos," B.F. Chao and D.P. Rubincam, Geophys. Res. Letters, 16, 859-862.
• 1987 "LAGEOS Orbit Decay due to Infrared Radiation from Earth", J. Geophys. Res., 92, 1287-1294.
• 1984 "Postglacial Rebound Observed by Lageos and the Effective Viscosity of the Lower Mantle," J. Geophys. Res., 89, 1077-1087.
• 1979 "Gravitational Potential Energy of the Earth: A Spherical Harmonic Approach," J. Geophys. Res., 84, 6219-6225. A284, 485-494.
• 1975 "Tidal Friction and the Early History of the Moon's Orbit," J. Geophys. Res., 80, 1537-1548.

References