Richard Martin West (born 1941) is aDanishastronomer and discoverer ofastronomical objects with a long career at theEuropean Southern Observatory (ESO) and at theInternational Astronomical Union (IAU).

He discovered numerouscomets, includingComet West (C/1975 V1), which was one of the brightest comets of the 1970s,^[2] and the periodic comets76P/West–Kohoutek–Ikemura and123P/West–Hartley.

He is also credited by theMinor Planet Center with the discovery of 40minor planets between 1976 and 1986,^[1] including2146 Stentor and2148 Epeios, twoTrojan asteroids. Together withHans-Emil Schuster, he co-discovered thePhoenix Dwarf galaxy.

West was born in Copenhagen in 1941. He completed high school in 1959 and then achieved a degree in astronomy and astrophysics fromUniversity of Copenhagen in 1964.

Richard West began working at ESO in 1970, when he joined as Assistant Astronomer to the ESO Director General,Adriaan Blaauw. His career took a leap in 1972, when he charged one of the first and largest scientific programmes of ESO: the Sky Atlas Laboratory project to systematically map the southern hemisphere.^[3]

West was a leading figure in helping out and establishing serious collaborations with the scientific communities of the Central and Eastern European countries in the wake of the political, social and economical turmoil following the collapse and dismantling of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s.^[3][4]

West retired in 2005, after a continuous employment at ESO.^[3]

Richard West focussed a lot of his worklife on the organizational matters of the international scientific community in addition to science communications in general. He held a number of influential positions:^[3]

• Assistant General Secretary of theIAU in 1979–1982.
• General Secretary of the IAU (1982–1985).^[5]
• Presided over a number of IAU Commissions, including Commission 20 from 1988 to 1991.^[5]
• Member of the Executive Committee ofICSU.

• Rosenkjaer Prize. A prestigious award in Denmark, given for outstanding science or culture communication.
• The main-belt asteroid2022 West was named in his honor.^[5]

• Richard West's homepage

• 1941 births
• 21st-century Danish astronomers
• 20th-century Danish astronomers
• Discoverers of asteroids
• Discoverers of comets
• Discoveries by Richard Martin West
• Living people
• University of Copenhagen alumni
• Scientists from Copenhagen

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata