Donald Eugene Brownlee (born December 21, 1943) is a professor of

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

at the

University of Washington at Seattle The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Unite ...

and the principal investigator for

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

Stardust Stardust may refer to: * A type of cosmic dust, composed of particles in space Entertainment Songs * “Stardust” (1927 song), by Hoagy Carmichael * “Stardust” (David Essex song), 1974 * “Stardust” (Lena Meyer-Landrut song), 2012 * ...

mission. In 2000, along with his co-author Peter Ward, he co-originated the term '' Rare Earth,'' in reference to the possible scarcity of life elsewhere in the universe. His primary research interests include astrobiology, comets, and cosmic dust. He was born in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Education and employment

Brownlee studied electrical engineering at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, prior to attending graduate school at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. Brownlee received his doctorate in astronomy from the University of Washington in 1971, joining the astronomy department as faculty in 1975. He has also conducted research as a distinguished visiting professor at the

Enrico Fermi Institute __NOTOC__ The Institute for Nuclear Studies was founded September 1945 as part of the University of Chicago with Samuel King Allison as director. On November 20, 1955, it was renamed The Enrico Fermi Institute for Nuclear Studies. The name was ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Alongside paleontologist Peter Ward, Brownlee is the coauthor of two books, '' Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe'' (which put forth the Rare Earth Hypothesis) and '' The Life and Death of Planet Earth'', with his third book ''The Sixth Element: How Carbon Shapes Our World'' being co-authored with Theodore P. Snow.

Honors

Asteroid 3259 was named after Brownlee in 1991. The

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. ...

has also named a new

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

in honor of Donald Brownlee. This new

silicide A silicide is a type of chemical compound that combines silicon and a usually more electropositive element. Silicon is more electropositive than carbon. In terms of their physical properties, silicides are structurally closer to borides than t ...

mineral (with

chemical formula A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...

MnSi Manganese monosilicide (MnSi) is an intermetallic compound, a silicide of manganese. It occurs in cosmic dust as the mineral brownleeite. MnSi has a cubic crystal lattice with no inversion center; therefore its crystal structure is helical, wit ...

) is now called

brownleeite Brownleeite is a silicide mineral with chemical formula MnSi. It was discovered by researchers of the Johnson Space Center in Houston while analyzing the Pi Puppid particle shower of the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The only other known natural m ...

, and is the first mineral found from a comet. He has been awarded the J. Lawrence Smith Medal from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

, the

Leonard Medal The Leonard Medal honors outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields. It is awarded by the Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote res ...

from the

Meteoritical Society The Meteoritical Society is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote research and education in planetary science with emphasis on studies of meteorites and other extraterrestrial materials that further our understanding of th ...

, and the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement in 2007. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and in 1999 a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, Atmospheric science, atmospheric, Oceanography, ocean, Hydrology, hydrologic, Astronomy, space, and Planetary science, planetary scientists and enthusiasts that ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownlee, Donald E. 1943 births UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Washington faculty Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American astrobiologists Scientists from Las Vegas Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Geophysical Union