George B. Field
George B. Field in 1987
Born (1929-10-25) October 25, 1929
Providence, Rhode Island
NationalityAmerican
Alma materMIT (B.S., Physics)
Princeton University (Ph.D.) [1]
OccupationAstrophysicist
Known forAstrophysics

George B. Field (born October 25, 1929, in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American astrophysicist.

Early life, family and education

Field was born in Providence, Rhode Island.[1] His father Winthrop Brooks Field and mother Pauline Woodworth Field were Harvard and Radcliffe graduates, respectively.[1] He became interested in astronomy at an early age, but at the urging of his father he studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Disliking engineering, he later switched to astrophysics. After MIT, he attended the graduate school at Princeton University. When working at Princeton he had his first child, Christopher Field in 1957. Four years following he went on to have a daughter, Natasha Field, both with former wife Sylvia Field. He remarried in 1981, to his present wife Susan.

Career

Field worked on plasma oscillations and later became interested in cosmology.[1] In 1973, he became the founding director of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, an organizational structure that unified the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (a government agency) and the Harvard College Observatory (a private institution) under a single management. Field served as Director until 1982, when he was succeeded by Irwin I. Shapiro.

In the early 1980s, Field chaired an influential National Academy of Sciences decadal study that recommended priorities for US astronomical research.[2]

He has also worked on magnetohydrodynamics and magnetic fields in astronomy.[3]

Doctoral students

Among his doctoral students were Eric G. Blackman, Sean M. Carroll, Carl E. Heiles, and Christopher McKee.

Awards

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Interview with Dr. George Field". Interviewed by Richard Hirsh. Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Niels Bohr Library and Archives. July 14, 1980.
  2. ↑ Cornell, James; Gorenstein, Paul, eds. (April 1985). Astronomy from Space: Sputnik to Space Telescope. The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-53061-9.
  3. ↑ "George Field". astronomy.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-05.
  4. ↑ "Recipients of the Karl Schwarzschild Medal". astronomische-gesellschaft.org. Archived from the original on 17 May 2019.
  5. ↑ "George B. Field, NAS entry".


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