Eric Becklin

Eric E. Becklin is an American astrophysicist. The primary focus of Becklin's research is infrared imaging and spectroscopy, including the search for brown dwarfs, the detection of circumstellar dust rings, the dynamics and composition of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the nature of luminous infrared galaxies.[1]

Eric Edward Becklin
Born(1940-04-06)6 April 1940
CitizenshipUSA
Alma materB.S. (Physics) University of Minnesota, 1963
Ph.D. (Physics) California Institute of Technology, 1968
Known forinfrared astronomy
airborne observatories

Becklin received his Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology His thesis advisor was Gerry Neugebauer, and his thesis was Infrared Observation of the Galatic [sic] Center.[2] A faculty member since 1989, Becklin is a Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Named Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Chief Scientist in 1996, he was the first director of the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) at Mauna Kea, Hawaii and a principal investigator on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO).

On August 23, 2012, in a ceremony held at Dryden Flight Research Center (now the Armstrong Flight Research Center), Becklin received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal “for excellence as a pioneer in the infrared astronomy field and providing key leadership for the scientific success of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.”[3] He was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship by the American Astronomical Society in 2017.[4]

In 1966, Becklin and Gerry Neugebauer discovered an exceptionally bright infrared source within Orion known today as the Becklin-Neugebauer Object.[5] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.[6]

In 1988, while returning home from an observing run on Mauna Kea, Becklin was a passenger on Aloha Airlines Flight 243, which underwent explosive decompression and had to make an emergency landing in Maui.[7]


Notes
  1. "Eric Becklin". UCLA Division of Astronomy & Astrophysics. UCLA. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. Beklin, Eric. "Infrared Observation of the Galatic Center" (PDF). Caltech. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2014-03-28.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. "Henry Norris Russell Lectureship". aas.org. American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  5. "Becklin-Neugebauer Object". The Internet Encyclopedia of Science.
  6. "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 29, 2011.
  7. Uechi, Colleen (22 April 2018). "Aloha Airlines Flt. 243: 30 years later — recalling terror in the skies". The Maui News. Ogden Newspapers, The Nutting Company. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
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