Asteroid Is Named In Honor of Texas Astronomer

Asteroid Is Named In Honor Of Texas Astronomer Michael A. Cusanovich Michael Riordan Merit Awards Edward C. Stone, Jr Philip D. Magnus Edward C. Stone, Jr After 40 years of devoting his life to astronomy, Harlan Smith has been given something in return: an asteroid. The announcement of the designation of "Minor Planet (3842) Harlansmith" was made during a banquet honoring Smith for his 25 years as director of the University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory. Smith, a member of the school's astronomy faculty, explained in an interview that three types of celestial objects can be named for people: Features on planets and satellites are named for dead people; comets are named after the people who identify them; and an asteroid can be named for anything by the person who determines its definitive orbit. The asteroid that now carries his name was discovered by E. Bowell in March 1985, and the idea of calling it Minor Planet Harlansmith was proposed by Richard Binzel, a former student of Smith's and now assistant professor of planetary science at MIT. Smith's namesake is approximately 10 kilometers in diameter and orbits the sun at an average distance of 218 million miles. Smith says that during his career he always thought he had a better chance of having a comet named for him than an asteroid. As a student in the late 1940s, he spent a summer in New Mexico taking photographs of meteors, a process that gives one a good chance of discovering a comet. Smith has not yet seen his asteroid, but it should come into view this spring. "I just might take a gander at it for the fun of it," Smith says. The citation announcing Smith's honor reads, in part: "Under his leadership, McDonald has become one of the most productive observatories in the world. While serving as chairman of the astronomy department from 1963 until 1978, Smith oversaw its development into the largest and one of the best academic astronomy programs in the United States." Michael A. Cusanovich has been named both vice president for research and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Arizona, Tucson. He replaces Laurel Wilkening, who left the university last year to become provost at the University of Washington, Seattle. A professor of biochemistry and chemistry, Cusanovich has been at UA since 1969, and has been acting vice dean of the Graduate College and assistant vice president for research since 1987. One of Cusanovich's goals is to improve support services for research activities on campus. Michael Riordan, science information officer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), is the 1988 winner of the annual American Institute of Physics Science-Writing Award in Physics and Astronomy. At the AIP's annual Corporate Associates meeting recently, Riordan was given a $3,000 check and a citation for his book, The Hunting of the Quark (Simon & Schuster, 1987). The work derives largely from his experiences at MIT and from his time at SLAC, where he also worked as a graduate student and postdoc on the MIT-SLAC inelastic electron scattering experiments which resulted in the discovery of quarks. The Botanical Society of America recently honored three scientists with Merit Awards, given to individuals judged to have made outstanding contributions to botanical science. Aubrey W. Naylor, a plant physiologist from Duke University, was honored for his investigations of plant growth regulators and for his work on amino and nucleic acid metabolism. Richard E. Schultes is an economic botanist, editor, explorer, and Harvard University professor who received the award for his writings on orchids and rubber, and on hallucinogenic, narcotic, and medicinal plants. T. Elliot Weier, lichenologist and author of widely used botanical texts, won for his pioneering work in chloroplast structures and ultrastructures. Weier is professor emeritus at the University of California, Davis. Edward C. Stone, Jr., professor of physics, has been elected vice president for astronomical facilities at the California Institute of Technology. His new position makes him responsible for Caltech's involvement in the design, construction, and startup phases of the W. M. Keck Observatory and Telescope in Hawaii. Stone, concluding his five-year term as chairman of the Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy Division at Caltech, will be succeeded by Gerry Neugebauer, Howard Hughes Professor as well as professor of physics and the director of the Palomar Observatory. The University of Texas, Austin, recently selected Indiana University's Philip D. Magnus as the first appointee to the R.P. Doherty Jr.-Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry. Magnus, a fellow of Britain's Royal Society, is an expert in the field of synthetic organic chemistry. The nation's oldest and largest aerospace technical society, the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, recently appointed Cort Durocher as its new executive director. Leaving Hughes Aircraft Co., Durocher brings 20 years of experience in aerospace science to the AIAA. The outgoing executive director, James J. Hartford, has served the institute since 1953 and will continue on as senior consultant in support of special projects.

Asteroid Is Named In Honor of Texas Astronomer

The Scientist Staff

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