Michael J. Gaffey | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1945-12-01)December 1, 1945 (age 79) Meadville, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | University of Iowa,Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Awards | G.K. Gilbert Award,Leonard Medal |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | planetary science |
| Institutions | University of HawaiʻiInstitute for Astronomy Hawaii Institute of Geophysics Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute University of North Dakota |
| Website | space.edu |
Michael James Gaffey (born December 1, 1945) is a planetary scientist who specializes in deriving the mineralogies ofasteroids from their reflectance spectra.[1]
He received his bachelor's and master's degrees ingeology from theUniversity of Iowa and his PhD fromMassachusetts Institute of Technology inplanetary science graduating in 1974. From 1974 to 1977, he worked as aPost-doc in the Planetary Astronomy Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After leaving Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he worked as a researcher at theInstitute for Astronomy of theUniversity of Hawaiʻi from 1977 to 1979 and theHawaii Institute of Geophysics from 1979 to 1984. From 1984 to 2001, he taught in thegeology department of theRensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is currently a professor at theUniversity of North Dakota in the Space Studies department.[2]
In 2006 he received both theLeonard Medal from theMeteoritical Society and theG. K. Gilbert Award from thePlanetary Science division of theGeological Society of America.[3]Asteroid3545 Gaffey is also named in his honor.[4]
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