David H. Levy
David H. Levy (born May 22, 1948) is a Canadian astronomer and science writer most famous for his co-discovery in 1993 of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9, which collided with the planet Jupiter in 1994.
Biography
Levy was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1948. He developed an interest in astronomy at an early age. However, he pursued and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature.[1]
Levy went on to discover 22 comets, either independently or with Gene and Carolyn S. Shoemaker. He has written 34 books, mostly on astronomical subjects, such as The Quest for Comets, the definitive biography of Pluto-discoverer Clyde Tombaugh in 2006, and his tribute to Gene Shoemaker in Shoemaker by Levy. He has provided periodic articles for Sky and Telescope magazine,[2] as well as Parade Magazine, Sky News and, most recently, Astronomy Magazine.
Periodic comets that Levy co-discovered include 118P/Shoemaker–Levy, 129P/Shoemaker–Levy, 135P/Shoemaker–Levy, 137P/Shoemaker–Levy, 138P/Shoemaker–Levy, 145P/Shoemaker–Levy, and 181P/Shoemaker–Levy. In addition, Levy is the sole discoverer of two periodic comets: 255P/Levy and P/1991 L3.
On February 28, 2010, Levy was awarded a Ph. D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for his successful completion of his thesis "The Sky in Early Modern English Literature: A Study of Allusions to Celestial Events in Elizabethan and Jacobean Writing, 1572–1620."
He now lives in Vail, Arizona and is married to Wendee Levy.[3] Levy and his wife hosted a weekly internet radio talk show on astronomy, which ended on February 3, 2011, with a planned "Final Show". Show archives are still available in WMA and MP3 formats.[4] Levy is President of the National Sharing the Sky Foundation.[5]
Levy is a Master of Astronomy with DeTao Masters Academy (DTMA)[6], a subsidiary of DeTao Group, a world class educational organization focusing on knowledge and innovation.
Awards
The asteroid 3673 Levy was named in his honour. Levy was awarded the C.A. Chant Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in 1980. In 1993 he won the Amateur Achievement Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. In 2007, Levy received the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Edgar Wilson Award for the discovery of comets. In 2008, a special edition telescope, "The Comet Hunter" was co-designed by Levy.[7]
Together with Martyn Ives, David Taylor, and Benjamin Woolley, Levy won an 1998 News & Documentary Emmy Award in the "Individual Achievement in a Craft, Writer" category for the script of the documentary 3 Minutes to Impact produced by York Films for the Discovery Channel.[8][9]
See also
References
- ^ David Levy early life/education
- ^ David Levy biography
- ^ Astronomer David Levy
- ^ Astronomy Talk Radio
- ^ National Sharing the Sky Foundation Accessed 2010-04-19
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeTao_Master_Academy
- ^ David H. Levy Comet Hunter Special Edition Telescope
- ^ International Documentary Association (1998). International documentary: the newsletter of the International Documentary Association. Vol. 17. International Documentary Association. p. 59.; see also [1] and [2].
- ^ Columnist Biography. David H. Levy, Astronomy (magazine). Retrieved September 17, 2011.
External links
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