David Morrison (astrophysicist)
Encyclopedia
Dr. David Morrison is director of the Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author, science popularizer and science communicator in astronomy and natural sciences. He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books...

 Center for Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute
SETI Institute
The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to “explore, understand and explain the origin, nature and prevalence of life in the universe”. SETI stands for the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence". One program is the use of both radio and optical telescopes to search...

, former director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute
NASA Lunar Science Institute
The NASA Lunar Science Institute is a new organization, established by NASA in 2008, that supplements and extends existing NASA lunar science programs...

, and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute
NASA Astrobiology Institute
The NASA Astrobiology Institute was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration "to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions". The NAI is a virtual, distributed organization that integrates astrobiology research and...

, at NASA Ames Research Center
NASA Ames Research Center
The Ames Research Center , is one of the United States of America's National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10 major field centers.The centre is located in Moffett Field in California's Silicon Valley, near the high-tech companies, entrepreneurial ventures, universities, and other...

 in Mountain View, California. He is the past Director of Space at NASA Ames. Morrison is credited as the founder of the multi-disciplinary field of astrobiology
Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...

. Morrison is best known for his work in risk assessment of near Earth objects such as asteroids and comets. Asteroid 2410 Morrison was named in his honor for his work on the subject since 1991.
Morrison also known for his "Ask an Astrobiologist" series on NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

's website where he provides answers to questions submitted by the public about a variety of topics from 2012 doomsday hoaxes
Nibiru collision
The Nibiru collision is a supposed disastrous encounter between the Earth and a large planetary object which certain groups believe will take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Planet X or Nibiru...

 to planetary habitability
Planetary habitability
Planetary habitability is the measure of a planet's or a natural satellite's potential to sustain life. Life may develop directly on a planet or satellite or be transferred to it from another body, a theoretical process known as panspermia...

 to discovery of planets outside our solar system. He has published 12 books and over 150 papers primarily on Planetary Science, Astrobiology and Near Earth Object subjects.

Background

Morrison earned his PhD in astronomy from Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. He served as a science investigator on Mariner
Mariner program
The Mariner program was a program conducted by the American space agency NASA that launched a series of robotic interplanetary probes designed to investigate Mars, Venus and Mercury from 1963 to 1973...

, Voyager
Voyager program
The Voyager program is a U.S program that launched two unmanned space missions, scientific probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment of the late 1970s...

 and Galileo space science mission. Morrison received the Dryden Medal for research of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...

, the Sagan Medal of the American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...

 for public Communication, and the Klumpke-Roberts award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is a scientific and educational organization, founded in San Francisco on February 7, 1889. Its name derives from its origins on the Pacific Coast, but today it has members all over the country and the world...

 for his contributions to science education. NASA has also awarded him Outstanding Leadership medals twice as well as the Presidential Meritorious Rank.

David Morrison has held a variety of senior science management positions at NASA Headquarters in Washington and at Ames Research Center in California. In Washington he was the first Program Scientist for the Galileo mission to Jupiter, where he was responsible for defining the mission objectives and recommending the instruments and science investigations that were selected for this mission. He also served as Deputy Associate Administrator for what is now called the NASA Science Mission Directorate, which is responsible for all NASA space science and flight missions. At NASA Ames, he has been Chief of the Space Science Division, Director Space, and most recently the founding Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute
NASA Lunar Science Institute
The NASA Lunar Science Institute is a new organization, established by NASA in 2008, that supplements and extends existing NASA lunar science programs...

. His responsibilities included the major NASA missions Lunar Pathfinder, Kepler, and SOFIA
Sofia
Sofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city in the European Union with a population of 1.27 million people. It is located in western Bulgaria, at the foot of Mount Vitosha and approximately at the centre of the Balkan Peninsula.Prehistoric settlements were excavated...

. Morrison has served as Councilor of the American Astronomical Society
American Astronomical Society
The American Astronomical Society is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC...

, Chair of the Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society, President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Chair of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and both President of Commission 16 (Planets and Satellites) and of the Working Group on Near Earth Objects of the International Astronomical Union
International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union IAU is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...

.

Before going to NASA, Morrison was an academic research scientist working in planetary science and space missions. He was Professor of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii
University of Hawaii
The University of Hawaii System, formally the University of Hawaii and popularly known as UH, is a public, co-educational college and university system that confers associate, bachelor, master, and doctoral degrees through three university campuses, seven community college campuses, an employment...

, where he also directed the 3-meter NASA Infrared Telescope Facility of Mauna Kea Observatory
Mauna Kea Observatory
The Observatories at Mauna Kea, , are an independent collection of astronomical research facilities located on the summit of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawai'i, USA. The facilities are located in a special land use zone known as the "Astronomy Precinct," which is located in the Mauna Kea...

  and served for two years as University Vice Chancellor for Research. His research accomplishments include demonstration of the uniform high surface temperature of Venus
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

 , the discovery that Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...

 has a large internal heat source while its “twin” planet Uranus
Uranus
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System. It is named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus , the father of Cronus and grandfather of Zeus...

 does not , determination of the surface composition of Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...

  , first ground-based measurements of the heat flow from Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io
IO
Io, IO, I/O, i/o, or i.o. may refer to:-An abbreviation:* I.O., a theater in Chicago, Illinois dedicated to improvisational comedy* i.o., "in illo ordine", Latin phrase meaning "respectively"...

 , discovery of the fundamental division of the asteroids into dark (primitive) and light (stony) classes , and the first quantitative estimate of the cosmic impact hazard. As a founder of the multidisciplinary field of astrobiology, Morrison was also co-chair of the first NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 Astrobiology
Astrobiology
Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. This interdisciplinary field encompasses the search for habitable environments in our Solar System and habitable planets outside our Solar System, the search for evidence of prebiotic chemistry,...

 Roadmap workshop and report .

Morrison has also made many contributions to teaching astronomy and space science, including authorship of leading college undergraduate texts in astronomy and planetary science. He is a popular public writer and lecturer, promoting a scientific and fact-based perspective about such topics as Emmanuel Velikovsky’s pseudocosmology , the evolution-creationist conflict , climate change denialism , and the 2012 doomsday hoax.

Personal

David Morrison was born in Danville IL on June 26, 1940. He attended elementary and high school in Danville and graduated from the University of
Illinois in Urbana in 1962 with high distinction in physics. He studied astronomy at Harvard University and received the Ph.D in 1969, with Carl
Sagan as thesis advisor. He was on the faculty of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii (Manoa) from 1969 until 1988, when he
joined the senior management staff of NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, CA. While on the faculty of the University of Hawaii, Morrison spent
two sabbaticals at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and two assignments in space science management at NASA
Headquarters in Washington DC.

Morrison is married to Janet Lee Morrison, retired medical information specialist, and lives near San Jose CA. In addition to scientific research
and management, he has a strong commitment to science education and promoting science literacy and critical thinking. He is a Fellow of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the California Academy of Science, and of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry; also a
supporter of the National Center for Science Education and a Scientist Trustee of the California Academy of Science. Morrison is an avid traveler
and photographer, who has visited and photographed in some 60 countries on all the continents, ranging from the Arctic to the Antarctic, all across
North America, Europe, and North Africa, and extensively in South and South-East Asia. He launched a 'youtube' video about the 2012 hoax telling the public that they have nothing to worry about.

External links

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