Robert Williams (astronomer)

Robert Williams (2012)

Robert Williams (born 1940) is an astronomer[1][2] who served as the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) from 1993 to 1998,[3] and the President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) from 2009 to 2012.[2][3]

As the Director of STScI, he decided to devote a substantial fraction of his Director's Discretionary time on Hubble Space Telescope during 1995 to the study of distant galaxies. This resulted in the Hubble Deep Field, a landmark image in the study of the early universe. For his leadership on this project, he was awarded the 1998 Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize,[4] the 1999 NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal [5] and the 2016 Karl Schwarzschild Medal.[6]

Prior to his work at STScI, he was a Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona in Tucson for 18 years and the Director of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory from 1986 to 1993.

Williams currently holds the position of Astronomer Emeritus at STScI.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Williams.

References

  1. ↑ Robert Williams website
  2. 1 2 Robert Williams IAU profile
  3. 1 2 Robert Williams Biography
  4. ↑ AUI profile of Robert Williams
  5. ↑ Asteroid Day biography of Robert Williams
  6. ↑ German Astronomical Society (AG) awards Robert Williams the Karl Schwarzschild Medal
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.