From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Tue Oct 28 2003 - 14:58:13 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: cunews_at_cornell.edu
Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 5:31 PM
To: CUNEWS-CAMPUS-L_at_cornell.edu
Subject: Cornell News: Astronomer Tor Hagfors lecture at Arecibo
Astronomer Tor Hagfors to give Gordon Lecture at Arecibo Nov. 3
FOR RELEASE: Oct. 28, 2003
Contact: David Brand
Office: 607-255-3651
E-mail: deb27_at_cornell.edu
ARECIBO, P.R. -- The prominent Norwegian-born astronomer Tor Hagfors
will deliver a lecture during next weekend's 40th anniversary
celebrations at Arecibo Observatory, home of the world's largest and
most-sensitive single-dish radio telescope.
Hagfors, who will give the William E. and Elva F. Gordon
Distinguished Lecture on Nov. 3, is an internationally known pioneer
in studies of the interaction of electromagnetic waves with ionized
plasmas and solid surfaces.
Hagfors was director of the observatory's managing organization, the
National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC) at Cornell
University, Ithaca, N.Y., from 1982 to 1992. He is now professor
emeritus of electrical engineering and astronomy at Cornell and
scientific member emeritus of the Max-Planck-Institut für
Aeronomie in Germany. NAIC, manages the observatory for the National
Science Foundation.
While NAIC director and a Cornell professor, Hagfors initiated the
engineering studies and developed the proposals that led to the
second upgrading of the Arecibo telescope in the mid-1990s. He first
joined NAIC as director of operations from 1971 to 1973. He then
returned to his native Norway as founding director of the European
Incoherent Scatter Association (EISCAT), during which he was
responsible for the construction and early operation of the EISCAT
facility in Scandinavia.
While at Cornell, Hagfors continued his ionospheric research with
several graduate students and, using the radar facilities of the
Arecibo Observatory, investigated the properties of Langmuir waves
(produced by energetic electrons streaming into the solar wind).
After moving to Germany in 1992 to become director of the Max Planck
Institute, he became involved in space missions to study the Martian
surface and the internal structure of comets. In recognition of his
research achievements, and in celebration of his 68th birthday, the
asteroid 1985 VD1 was named "Hagfors" in his honor. Hagfors also has
served as director of the Jicamarca Radio Observatory in Peru and has
been on the faculty at the University of Trondheim and the University
of Oslo, both in Norway.
He was one of several people who independently developed the theory
for incoherent scattering from magnetized plasmas, and he established
many of the fundamental principles that would be needed for radar
astronomical observations of the moon and planets. His Hagfors
scattering law, describing the scattering of radar waves from
planetary surfaces, is still widely used. His early radar studies of
the properties of the lunar surface were an important contribution in
preparation for the Apollo moon landings.
The Gordon Lecture is endowed by Arecibo pioneer, engineer Tom
Talpey, and his wife, Elizabeth. Talpey was a member of the
engineering team led by William Gordon that spent three years in
Puerto Rico in the early 1960s building Arecibo Observatory, which
received its Ūrst radio signals in 1963.
Related World Wide Web sites: The following sites provide
additional information on this news release. Some might not be part
of the Cornell University community, and Cornell has no control over
their content or availability.
o NAIC: <http://www.naic.edu/>
o Cornell News Service Arecibo site:
<http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Arecibo40>
-30-
The web version of this release may be found at
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Oct03/Arecibo.Hagfors.deb.html
--
Cornell University News Service
Surge 3
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607-255-4206
cunews_at_cornell.edu
http://www.news.cornell.edu
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