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Chandra X-ray Center Director Elected to National Academy of SciencesMay 3, 2005Megan Watzke Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, CfA, Cambridge, MA Phone: 617-496-7998 cxcpress@cfa.harvard.edu
The election was held this morning during the business session of the 142nd annual meeting of the Academy. Election to membership in the Academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded a U.S. scientist or engineer. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 1,976. Among those selected was Harvey Tananbaum, who has served as director of the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) at the Smithsonian Astrophsycial Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. since 1991. Prior to becoming director of the CXC, Tananbaum was Associate Director for High Energy Astrophysics at the
In 1976, Tananbaum and Riccardo Giacconi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physics, submitted a proposal letter to NASA to initiate the study and design of a large X-ray telescope, thus beginning a 23-year journey which led to the launch of Chandra in July of 1999 aboard the space shuttle Columbia. The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization of scientists and engineers dedicated to the furtherance of science and its use for the general welfare. It was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln that calls on the Academy to act as an official adviser to the federal government, upon request, in any matter of science or technology. A more detailed biography of Dr. Tananbaum can be found at: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/bios/tananbaum_bio.html [ Press Index ] [ Press Releases ] |
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