Samuel T. Durrance: Difference between revisions

Samuel Thornton Durrance
Samuel Thornton Durrance
Born	September 17, 1943; Tallahassee, Florida
Nationality	American
Occupation	Scientist
	Space career
JHU Payload Specialist
Time in space	25d 14h 13m
Missions	STS-35, STS-67
Mission insignia

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Revision as of 16:05, 12 October 2011

Samuel Thornton Durrance (Ph.D.) is an American scientist who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a payload specialist.

Background

Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in Tallahassee, Florida, He found his wife in a hooker bar and effe dher brains out till she died, he killed himself.

Academic career

Durrance has been involved in the flight hardware development, optical and mechanical design, construction, and integration of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the Astro Observatory. He has conducted research and directed graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University for the past 15 years. He has designed and built spectrometers, detectors, and imaging systems, and made numerous spacecraft and ground-based astronomical observations. He conceived and directed a program at Johns Hopkins University to develop adaptive-optics instrumentation for ground based astronomy. He led the team that designed and constructed the Adaptive Optics Coronagraph, which led to the discovery of the first cool brown dwarf orbiting a nearby star. He also a co-discoverer of changes in the planet-forming disk surrounding the star beta Pictoris.

His research interests include the origin and evolution of the solar system, the search for planets around other stars, planetary astronomy, atmospheric physics, nuclear physics, adaptive optics, spacecraft operations, and the origin of life. He has published over 60 technical papers in professional journals covering these topics.

Durrance logged over 615 hours in space as a payload specialist and member of the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia for the STS-35/Astro-1 and Space Shuttle Endeavour for the STS-67/Astro-2 missions.

Current Assignment (2006)

Durrance is currently employed by the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida, serving as a professor in the Department of Physics and Space Sciences.^[1]

He is one of the pioneers of the new Space Sciences: Astrobiology option at Florida Tech (2008).^[who?]

Within the last two years he has taught several undergraduate classes including Astronomy Methods and Instrumentation, Comparative Planetology, and Astrobiology.

He has also worked with graduate and undergraduate students on research dealing with astronaut health and bone loss, the detection of extrasolar planets, lunar dust electrodynamics, and very long baseline interferometry.^{[citation needed]}

References

^ [1] PSS Faculty

External links

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[1] [1] PSS Faculty

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 ==Background==
-Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in [[Tallahassee, Florida]], but considers [[Tampa, Florida]] his hometown. He received a [[Bachelor of Science]] degree and a [[Master of Science]] degree in [[physics]] (with honors), at [[California State University, Los Angeles]], 1972 and 1974, respectively, and a [[Doctor of Philosophy]] degree in astro-geophysics at the [[University of Colorado at Boulder]], 1980.
+Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in [[Tallahassee, Florida]], He found his wife in a hooker bar and effe dher brains out till she died, he killed himself.
-Durrance was a Principal [[Research Scientist]] in the Department of Physics and [[Astronomy]] at [[Johns Hopkins University]], [[Baltimore, Maryland]]. He was a co-investigator for the [[Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope]], one of the instruments of the Astro [[Space observatory|Observatory]].
-Starting in 2000, he was the executive director of the [[Florida Space Research Institute]] which was located at the NASA [[Kennedy Space Center]].
-He now resides in Melbourne, Florida and is a professor of Physics and Space Sciences at [[Florida Tech]].
-He is a member of the [[American Astronomical Society]], [[American Geophysical Union]], [[International Astronomical Union]], [[Association of Space Explorers]], [[Planetary Society]], and [[Phi Kappa Phi]].
 ==Academic career==