Ian Paul Griffin CRSNZ (born 1966) is a New Zealand astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and a public spokesman upon scientific matters. He is currently the Director of Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand. Griffin was the CEO of Science Oxford, in Oxford, United Kingdom, and the former head of public outreach at NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute.
Griffin began his professional life at University College London (UCL) where he decided to pursue a career combining both astronomical research and public outreach. He obtained his PhD in astronomy from UCL in 1991. [1] His doctoral thesis was titled The circumstellar environments of late type stars. [2] He was director of the Armagh Planetarium from 1990 to 1995. He then worked at Astronaut Memorial Planetarium and Observatory at Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida and Auckland Observatory in New Zealand before accepting the position as head of public outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, US. [3]
From 2004 to 2007, Griffin was director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. [4]
Griffin has a strong Twitter presence and regularly updates followers with photos of the Aurora Australis and of other astronomical phenomena.
| 10924 Mariagriffin | 29 January 1998 | MPC |
| 11678 Brevard | 25 February 1998 | MPC |
| 13376 Dunphy | 15 November 1998 | MPC |
| 14179 Skinner | 15 November 1998 | MPC |
| 17020 Hopemeraengus | 24 February 1999 | MPC |
| 23988 Maungakiekie | 2 September 1999 | MPC |
| 23990 Springsteen | 4 September 1999 | MPC |
| 25273 Barrycarole | 15 November 1998 | MPC |
| 27120 Isabelhawkins | 28 November 1998 | MPC |
| 31239 Michaeljames | 21 February 1998 | MPC |
| 31268 Welty | 16 March 1998 | MPC |
| 33179 Arsènewenger | 29 March 1998 | MPC |
| (44527) 1998 YC6 | 22 dicembre 1998 | MPC |
| (49291) 1998 VJ | 8 November 1998 | MPC |
| (53109) 1999 AD5 | 12 January 1999 | MPC |
| (66856) 1999 VW22(*) | 13 November 1999 | MPC |
| 85773 Gutbezahl | 25 October 1998 | MPC |
| 101461 Dunedin | 25 November 1998 | MPC |
| (101462) 1998 WW7 | 25 November 1998 | MPC |
| 101491 Grahamcrombie | 1 December 1998 | MPC |
| (108736) 2001 OG32(*) | 24 July 2001 | MPC |
| (134483) 1998 WK2 | 19 November 1998 | MPC |
| (135045) 2001 OF32(*) | 24 July 2001 | MPC |
| (155487) 1998 WP8 | 27 November 1998 | MPC |
| (192609) 1999 GY3 | 12 April 1999 | MPC |
| (*) in collaboration with N. Brady | ||
|---|---|---|
In his time at Space Telescope, Griffin contributed to the observation and study of a scientifically significant binary asteroid system, known as 1998 WW31. [6] This was only the second such binary system discovered in the Kuiper belt (the other being the Pluto and Charon system) and provided valuable data helping astronomers understand the mass and behaviour of objects in the Kuiper belt. [7]
Via search programmes using small telescopes, Griffin also discovered 26 numbered minor planets between 1998 and 2001. [5] Three of his discoveries were made in collaboration with Australian astronomer Nigel Brady. His discovery include:
However the Mars-crossing asteroid 4995 Griffin is unrelated to him, as it was named after Griffin Swanson the son of its discoverer Steven Roger Swanson. [11]
In 2015, Griffin was awarded the New Zealand Prime Minister's Science Communication Prize, worth NZD 100,000, for his work at Otago Museum. [12]
In 2019, Griffin was elected a Companion of Royal Society Te Apārangi. [13]
Brett James Gladman is a Canadian astronomer and a full professor at the University of British Columbia's Department of Physics and Astronomy in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds the Canada Research Chair in planetary astronomy. He does both theoretical work and observational optical astronomy.
David Lincoln Rabinowitz is an American astronomer, discoverer of minor planets and researcher at Yale University.
Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory from 1902 until his death in 1932.
Carl Gustav Witt was a German astronomer and discoverer of two asteroids who worked at the Berlin Urania Observatory, a popular observatory of the Urania astronomical association of Berlin.
Zhang Yuzhe, also known as Yu-Che Chang, was a Chinese astronomer and director of the Purple Mountain Observatory who is widely regarded as the father of modern Chinese astronomy. He studied the light curves of asteroids, and thus their rotation periods. He also researched the variable star CZ Cassiopeiae and the evolution of the orbit of Comet Halley. Zhang discovered three comets and is credited under the name Y. C. Chang by the Minor Planet Center for the discovery of one minor planet, the outer main-belt asteroid 3789 Zhongguo.
Jean Mueller is an American astronomer and discoverer of comets, minor planets, and a large number of supernovas at the U.S. Palomar Observatory in California.
Karen J. Meech is an American planetary astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) of the University of Hawaiʻi.
David Clifford Jewitt is a British-American astronomer who studies the Solar System, especially its minor bodies. He is based at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is a Member of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, the Director of the Institute for Planets and Exoplanets, Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Professor of Astronomy in the Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. He is best known for being the first person to discover a body beyond Pluto and Charon in the Kuiper belt.
Roy A. Tucker (1951 – 2021) was an American astronomer best known for the co-discovery of near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis (formerly known as 2004 MN4) along with David J. Tholen and Fabrizio Bernardi of the University of Hawaii. He was a prolific discoverer of minor planets, credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of 702 numbered minor planets between 1996 and 2010. He also discovered two comets: 328P/LONEOS–Tucker and C/2004 Q1, a Jupiter-family and near-parabolic comet, respectively.
Petr Pravec is a Czech astronomer and a discoverer of minor planets, born in Třinec, Czech Republic.
Peter Kušnirák is a Slovak astronomer, discoverer of minor planets, and a prolific photometrist of light-curves at Ondřejov Observatory in the Czech Republic. He was married to Slovak astronomer Ulrika Babiaková with whom he discovered 123647 Tomáško, named after their son Tomáško.
Piero Sicoli is an Italian astronomer and discoverer of minor planets, observing at the Italian Sormano Astronomical Observatory. As the observatory's coordinator, he is responsible for close encounters computation of near-Earth objects (NEOs), orbit computations, and identification of asteroids. The Observatory's focus is the examination and tracking of NEOs in Solar System.
Marc William Buie is an American astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets who works at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado in the Space Science Department. Formerly he worked at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and was the Sentinel Space Telescope Mission Scientist for the B612 Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting Earth from asteroid impact events.
Cuno Hoffmeister was a German astronomer, observer and discoverer of variable stars, comets and minor planets, and founder of Sonneberg Observatory.
Jane X. Luu is a Vietnamese-American astronomer and defense systems engineer. She was awarded the Kavli Prize for 2012 "for discovering and characterizing the Kuiper Belt and its largest members, work that led to a major advance in the understanding of the history of our planetary system".
Farpoint Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Northeast Kansas Amateur Astronomers' League, or NEKAAL. It is located on the grounds of Mission Valley High School at Eskridge, near Auburn, Kansas, approximately 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Topeka, Kansas, United States.
Brorfelde Observatory is an astronomical observatory located in Brorfelde near Holbæk, Denmark. It is home to the Brorfelde Schmidt Telescope and was run as a branch of the Copenhagen University Observatory until 1996. It still has telescopes that are used by University of Copenhagen students, but the operating staff moved to the Rockefeller Complex in Copenhagen.
The Badlands Observatory (IAU code 918) is an astronomical observatory named after the Badlands National Park, located in Quinn, South Dakota, near the city of Wall, United States. The observatory was founded in 2000. by American amateur astronomer Ron Dyvig, who was associated with the Optical Sciences Center and Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona. While there, he occasionally participated in observing runs using the telescopes on Kitt Peak. Kitt Peak Observatory As of November 2016, a total of 25 numbered minor planets were discovered at the observatory. The Minor Planet Center credits these discoveries to Ron Dyvig and to the observatory, respectively. The main-belt asteroid (315495) 2008 AQ3 was discovered by Italian amateur astronomer Fabrizio Tozzi while using the Badlands Observatory telescope remotely via the Internet in 2008. Asteroid 26715 South Dakota, discovered by Ron Dyvig in 2001, is named after the U.S. state South Dakota, where the Badlands observatory is located.
Highland Road Park Observatory or Baton Rouge Observatory is an astronomical observatory jointly operated by Louisiana State University's astronomy department, Baton Rouge Astronomical Society, and The Recreation & Park Commission for the Parish of East Baton Rouge. It is in Baton Rouge, in the U.S. state of Louisiana, in Highland Road Park.
Nihondaira Observatory is an astronomical observatory that is located on a hill overlooking Shimizu, Japan. It has been the source for numerous discoveries of minor planet by astronomer Takeshi Urata.
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