FOR RELEASE: March 1, 2001
Contact: David BrandOffice: 607-255-3651E-Mail: [email protected]
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Peter Gierasch, the distinguished Cornell University scientist who has almost "written the book" on planetary atmospheres, will be honored at a two-day seminar March 2 and 3. The event is being held to celebrate Gierasch's 60th birthday.
Gierasch has spent nearly 30 years in Cornell's astronomy department as a leading international figure in his field. "Peter is truly one of the leading people who have developed almost everything we know today about the atmospheres of planets, other than the Earth," said fellow Joseph Veverka, astronomy professor and chair of the department.
On March 2, a workshop in 701 Clark Hall will be devoted to a discussion of data from Jupiter acquired by the Galileo and Cassini space missions. The daylong session, which is limited to specialists in the field, begins at 9 a.m.
On March 3, a symposium on planetary atmospheres will be held, starting at 9 a.m., in 700 Clark Hall. The public is invited to attend. Among the speakers will be Andy Ingersoll of the California Institute of Technology, who was a graduate student with Gierasch at Harvard University. Another leading specialist in planetary atmospheres, Conway Leovy of the University of Washington, also will be speaking.
Gierasch's research has resulted in new understanding about the dynamics and thermal structure of planetary atmospheres, and a large body of knowledge about Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the sun, largely acquired through his association with NASA missions. From 1973 to 1989, he was a member of the Voyager infrared spectrometer science team. He has been a scientist with the Galileo mission since 1977 and a member of the Cassini infrared spectrometer science team since 1990.
Gierasch obtained his B.A. in physics in 1962 and his Ph.D. in applied mathematics in 1968, both at Harvard. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1972 . He served for a decade as director of the Cornell Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. He was an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow from 1975 to 1979.
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