Charles Robert O'Dell
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C. Robert O'Dell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Charles Robert O'Dell March 16, 1937 Hamilton County, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
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| Awards | Order of Merit, Poland (1978) Public Service Medal, NASA (1991) Doctor of Science, Illinois State University (2001) Benedykt Polak Prize, Poland (2016) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions |
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| Thesis | Photoelectric Measurement and Interpretation of Radiation from Gaseous Nebulae (1962) |
| Doctoral advisor | Donald E. Osterbrock |
| Website | www |
Charles Robert O'Dell (born March 16, 1937 in rural Hamilton County, Illinois) is an American observational astronomer. He is currently the Distinguished Research Professor of Astrophysics at Vanderbilt University and Andrew Hayes Buchanan Professor of Astrophysics (emeritus) at Rice University.
He attended Illinois State University from 1955 to 1959. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1962. In 1962-1963 was a Carnegie Institution for Science Fellow at the combined Mt. Wilson Observatory and Palomar Observatory based in Pasadena, California. From 1963 to 1964 he was an Assistant Professor at the University of California at Berkeley. In 1964-1972 he was at the University of Chicago, where he became a Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics and served as Chair of his department and Director of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory.
In 1972-1983 he served as the lead scientist for the Hubble Space Telescope in his NASA role as its Project Scientist. He led the advocacy for its creation and its design as a scientific observatory. He then led the formulation of policy for its scientific operation through the Space Telescope Science Institute and the establishment of open access to its data throughout the astronomical community.[1]
In 1982 he became a Professor of Space Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, retiring as Andrew Hayes Buchanan Professor of Astrophysics in 2000. In his present position at Vanderbilt University, he continues his career-long study of the interstellar medium.
His early research concentrated on the misnamed planetary nebulae, (they are not planets, they only look like our outer planets). He used observations and theory to establish their role in stellar evolution.[2] They are the expelled atmospheres of stars, only slightly more massive than the Sun, that have run out of nuclear fuel. The stars drop in size, in only a few tens of thousand years, from being red giants, the size of our inner Solar System, to being white dwarfs, the size of our Earth.
Much of his current activity is focused on the nearby star-formation region, the Orion Nebula. In 1993 he used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover in the Orion Nebula a new class of object, the proplyds, that provide clear-cut proof that ordinary star formation includes disks from which planets can form. [3] Since then, his research has concentrated on how these objects are created and interact with their natal material.[4]
An avid aviator, he participated as a pilot on the USA team in the FAI World Glider Aerobatic Championships in 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1993. As a mountaineer, he teamed in the 1960's with astronomers George Wallerstein and Lyman Spitzer on several first-ascents of mountains in British Columbia, Canada.
Honors and awards
He is a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society[5] and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.[6] He received the NASA Public Service Medal in 1991 for his early leadership role on the Hubble Space Telescope. He was awarded a Doctor of Science degree from Illinois State University in 2001.[7] He received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland from the Polish State (1978) and the Benedykt Polak Prize from the Warsaw Scientific Society (2016) in recognition of his work in establishing the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. He is a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. He received a senior Alexander von Humboldt Prize from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in 1996.
References
- ↑ Smith, Robert (1989). The Space Telescope (1 ed.). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-26634-3.
- ↑ O'Dell, C. R. (July 1963). "The Evolution of the Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae". Astrophysical Journal. 138: 67. doi:10.1086/147618.
- ↑ O'Dell, C. R. (June 1993). "Discovery of New Objects in the Orion Nebula on HST Images: Shocks, Compact Sources, and Protoplanetary Disks". Astrophysical Journal. 410: 696. doi:10.1086/172786.
- ↑ O'Dell, C. R. (March 2021). "Deciphering the 3D Orion Nebula-IV: The HH 269 Flow Emerges from the Orion-S Embedded Molecular Cloud". Astrophysical Journal. 909: 97. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/ae1b0.
- ↑ "New AAS Fellows".
- ↑ "New AAAS Fellows".
- ↑ "ISU Honorary Degrees".
External links
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