Martin Harwit

Martin Harwit (born March 9, 1931 in Prague) is a Czech-American astronomer, author, and was director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. from 1987 to 1995. His scientific work on Infrared astronomy as a professor at Cornell University is notable.

In 1994 he became embroiled in public debate when his work on the Enola Gay exhibit, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the 1945 Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , was accused of being "revisionist history" for including Japanese accounts of the attack and photographs of the victims, and for presenting an exhibit script that critics alleged "depicted the Japanese as victims of a United States motivated by vengeance." The controversy led to his being forced to resign from the directorship of the National Air and Space Museum.

Honors

Awards

• Bruce Medal (2007)

Named after him

• Asteroid 12143 Harwit

Works

• Astrophysical Concepts (1. Auflage 1973, 4. Auflage 2006) ISBN 978-0-387-32943-7
• Cosmic Discovery: The Search, Scope and Heritage of Astronomy (1981) ISBN 978-0-7108-0089-3
• An Exhibit Denied: Lobbying the History of Enola Gay (1996) ISBN 978-0-387-94797-6

External links

• Cornell Page
• Oral History interview transcript with Martin Marwit 19 April 1983, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives