Aden B. Meinel
Meinel in 1973
Born25 November 1922
Died3 October 2011
Alma materUniversity of California, Berkeley
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1944; died 2008)​
Children7, including Carolyn Meinel and Mary Newport
AwardsHelen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy (1954)
Frederic Ives Medal (1980)
George Van Biesbroeck Prize (1990)
Scientific career
InstitutionsJet Propulsion Laboratory
University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences

Aden B. Meinel (November 25, 1922 – October 3, 2011) was an American astronomer. He retired in 1993 as a distinguished scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He also held the rank of professor emeritus at the University of Arizona College of Optical Sciences. His research interests have included upper atmospheric physics, glass technology, optical design, instrumentation and space systems.

Meinel received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949. His dissertation is titled A Spectrographic Study of the Night Sky and Aurora in the Near Infrared. In 1944 he married astronomer Marjorie Steele Pettit who became his research partner. They had seven children together.[1]

In 1954, he was awarded the Helen B. Warner Prize for Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society. He was president of the Optical Society of America in 1972[2] and was awarded the Frederic Ives Medal in 1980. He received the George Van Biesbroeck Prize in 1990.

In 2022 a biography of Meinel and Marjorie was published by Oxford University Press, titled With Stars in Their Eyes: The Extraordinary Lives and Enduring Genius of Aden and Marjorie Meinel.[3]

Telescopes

During his career, Meinel was involved in the design and construction of several large telescopes, including:

Publications

Aden Meinel's publications include:

  • The Near-Infrared Spectrum of the Night Sky and Aurora, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 60, No. 357, p. 373
  • On the Spectrum of Lightning in the Venus Atmosphere, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 74, No. 439, p. 329
  • Automatic Optical Designing for Astronomy, Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Vol. 77, No. 455, p. 136
  • Catalog of Emission Lines in Astrophysical Objects, Optical Sciences Center Technical Report 27, June 1968, 195 pp.
  • Power for the People, McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, 1971, 280 pp. *LOC# TJ810.M44
  • Applied Solar Energy: An Introduction, Addison-Wesley, 1976, 650 pp.
  • Sunsets, Twilights, and Evenings Skies, Cambridge University Press, 1983, 163 pp. ISBN 978-0521252201
  • Telescope Structures - An Evolutionary Overview, Structural mechanics of optical systems II; Proceedings of the Meeting, Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 13-15, 1987, Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers
  • Aden B. Meinel publications

Honors

See also

References

  1. ↑ Oppenheimer, Ginger (1 June 2002). "The Meinels make their marks in astronomy". SPIE. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
  2. ↑ "Past Presidents of the Optical Society of America". Optic Society of America. Archived from the original on 2009-01-20.
  3. ↑ Winterburn, Emily (June 2022). "With Stars In Their Eyes". BBC Sky at Night. p. 94. ISSN 1745-9869.
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