MERCEDES T. RICHARDS

Richards was born in Jamaica and is now a U.S. citizen. She received her Ph.D. in Astronomy from University of Toronto in 1986 and is now Professor of Astronomy, University of Virginia. Her research interests include close interacting binaries, circumstellar gas flows and accretion regions, magnetic activity in cool stars, and Doppler tomography.

CARL A. ROUSE

Rouse received his Ph.D. in Particle Physics from CalTech in 1956. A researcher, Rouse branched out into astrophysics to challenge mistaken hypotheses concerning intensely hot gases that constitute the sun and stars. Rouse devised a new method to measure the presence of helium in the sun's atmosphere.

NEIL DE GRASSE TYSON

Tyson (1959- ) was born in Bronx, N.Y., and earned a B.A. in physics from Harvard University in 1980, an M.S. in astronomy from the University of Texas, Austin, in 1983, and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from Columbia University in 1991. He was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University’s Department of Astrophysics before joining the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist in 1994. Tyson became the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in 1996. He is also a research associate in the Department of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History. Tyson's work focuses primarily on two areas, dwarf galaxies and the "bulge" at the center of the Milky Way. He recently served as one of twelve members of President Bush’s commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry and recommended a thriving future for space exploration. In addition to his technical publications, Tyson has authored several books and since 1995 has been a monthly essayist for the magazine Natural History.

Reference
Tyson, Neil De Grasse. The Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist. New York: Doubleday, 2000.

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ARTHUR BERTRAM CUTHBERT WALKER, JR.

Walker (1936-2001) received his Ph.D. in Astrophysics from the University of Illinois in 1962. Appointed Associate Professor in 1974, then full Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University since 1982, Walker did pioneering work studying the X-ray spectrum of the solar corona and in the 1990s he lead a team of scientists who were the first to apply normal incidence X-ray optical systems to astronomical observation. He was the first astronomer to exploit the then new technology of multilayer coated optics to construct systems which could produce images using extreme ultraviolet radiation. Sally Ride, who would become the first American woman in space, was Walker’s first doctoral candidate. In 1986, President Reagan called Walker to serve on the commission investigating the space shuttle Challenger explosion.