Wednesday, February 05, 2003

By Stephanie Kirby, PR Intern

WILMINGTON – Dr. George R. Carruthers, noted African-American astronomer, space inventor and NASA award winner, will be speaking at UNCW Feb. 20 and 21 through the Harlow Shapely Visiting Lectureship program. This visit is sponsored by the UNCW Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography.

The public is cordially invited to hear Carruthers speak at 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 20 in Dobo Hall, room 134. The title of his talk is, “Origins of Stars, Planets and Life in the Universe: Advances from Space Research.” This presentation focuses on the contributions of current and planned space missions to the understanding of the origin and evolution of stars, planets, and life. These include both remote-sensing missions, such as the Hubble Space Telescope, and its follow-on, the Next Generation Space Telescope, and solar system exploration missions, such as current and planned Mars.

He will also be speaking at a Departmental Colloquium for the UNCW Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography at 2 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21 in DeLoach Hall, room 212. The title of his talk is, “Ultraviolet Space Astronomy and Ultraviolet Measurements of Earth and Planetary Atmospheres.”

Carruthers, an astronomer for the Space Science Division of the Naval Research Laboratory, has received the Arthur S. Fleming Award, the Exceptional Achievement Scientific Award metal from NASA, the Warner Prize of the American Astronomical Society, the National Science Foundation Fellow and an Honorary Doctor of Engineering from Michigan Technological University.

Carruthers has been the principle investigator for numerous NASA-sponsored space instruments. He has engaged in studies performed from Apollo 16, Skylab 4, Space Shuttle and unmanned satellites. His experience has been in Far-Ultraviolet astronomy and optical geophysics.

While working in the Space Science Division of the Rocket Astronomy Program at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C., Carruthers invented the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph that accompanied the Apollo 16 mission which went to the moon in April 1972. The Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph was the first observatory ever placed on another celestial body.

Through the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph much was learned about the earth’s atmosphere, including possible ways to control air pollution. It also detected hydrogen in deep space. This is evidence that plants are not the only source of earth’s oxygen. The discovery also led to new thinking on the origin of stars. This camera was also used in Skylab 4 when it observed Comet Kohoutek in 1974.

Carruthers helped introduce electronic telescopes on board NASA satellites that transform light into electrical signals which are relayed to Earth to be televised. In 1969 he patented an image converter for detecting electromagnetic radiation.

Carruthers is a speaker from the Harlow Shapely Visiting Lectureships in Astronomy, sponsored by the American Astronomical Society. The Visiting Lectureships Program is a program of two-day visits by professional astronomers to college campuses.

Carruthers is a member of Project SMART, which encourages African-American teachers and students to get involved in science and technology. He is also a member of the American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Technical Association. He is also chairman of the editing and review committee and editor for the Journal of the National Technical Association.

For more information contact Dr. Moorad Alexanian, visit coordinator, at 962-3463 or visit the following web pages:

http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/carruthers.html

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blcarruthers.htm

http://www.union.edu/orgs/shapley/program.htm