James B. Pollack
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James B. Pollack (1938 – 1994) was an American astrophysicist. He worked for NASA's Ames Research Center.
Pollack was born on 9 July 1938 and was brought up in Woodmere, Long Island by a Jewish family that was in the women's garment business. He was a high school valedictorian and graduated from Princeton University in 1960. He then received his master's at University of California, Berkeley in 1962 and his Ph.D from Harvard in 1965, where he was a student of Carl Sagan. [1]
Pollack specialized in atmospheric science[2], especially the atmospheres of Mars and Venus. He investigated the possibility of terraforming Mars, the extinction of the dinosaurs and the possibility of nuclear winter since the 1980's with Christopher McKay and Sagan.[3]
He explored the weather on Mars using data from the Mariner 9 spacecraft and the Viking mission. On this he based ground-breaking computer simulations of winds, storms, and the general climate on that planet.
He was a recipient of the Gerard P. Kuiper Prize in 1989 for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of planetary science.
A crater on Mars was named in his honor.
[edit] External link
[edit] References
- ^ Davidson, Keay (1999). Carl Sagan A Life, John Wiley & Sons ISBN 0-471-39536-6 (This book is dedicated to Pollack)
- ^ Christopher McKay - astrogeophysicist - Interview (htm). Retrieved on April 28, 2006.
- ^ Pale Blue Dot (txt). Retrieved on April 28, 2006.
