Gareth Vaughan Williams (born 1965, in

Windlesham Windlesham is a geographically-large village in the Surrey Heath borough of Surrey, England, approximately south west of central London. Its name derives from the Windle Brook, which runs south of the village into Chobham, and the common suffi ...

, England) is an English-American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, who served as the associate director of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

Minor Planet Center The Minor Planet Center (MPC) is the official body for observing and reporting on minor planets under the auspices of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Founded in 1947, it operates at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. Funct ...

(MPC) until his retirement in February 2020.

Career

From January 1990 to February 2020, Williams has been one of the longest-serving staff members of the Minor Planet Center. He is an IAU member and was the MPC representative on various IAU committees and working groups, including the ''Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature'' and is secretary of the ''

Working Group on Small Body Nomenclature In ancient times, only the Sun and Moon, a few stars, and the most easily visible planets had names. Over the last few hundred years, the number of identified astronomical objects has risen from hundreds to over a billion, and more are discovered e ...

.'' Gareth got his undergraduate degree in astronomy at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, and his PhD in 2013 from the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...

. He is known for recovering the lost asteroids 878 Mildred in 1991 and

719 Albert 719 Albert, provisional designation , is a stony asteroid, approximately 2.5 kilometers in diameter, classified as a near-Earth object of the Amor group of asteroids. It was discovered by Austrian astronomer Johann Palisa at the Vienna Obser ...

in 2000. He also identified the earliest known observation of a

Jupiter trojan The Jupiter trojans, commonly called trojan asteroids or simply trojans, are a large group of asteroids that share the planet Jupiter's orbit around the Sun. Relative to Jupiter, each Trojan (celestial body), trojan Libration point orbit, librat ...

, when he linked A904 RD, an object seen on a single night in 1904 by E. E. Barnard, with . Barnard's observations, which he initially believed belonged to Saturn IX (Phoebe), were sufficient to show that the object was distant, but he did not follow it up. The first Jupiter trojan to be recognized as such, 588 Achilles, was discovered in 1906. On 11 February 2020, the Minor Planet Center announced that Gareth Williams is retiring as its associate director.

Awards and honors

Minor planet 3202 Graff, a

Hilda Hilda is one of several feminine given names derived from the name ''Hild'', formed from Old Norse , meaning 'battle'. Hild, a Nordic-German Bellona, was a Valkyrie who conveyed fallen warriors to Valhalla. Warfare was often called Hild's Game. ...

asteroid discovered by

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K� ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

in 1908, was named in his honor on 10 April 1990 (). The outer main belt asteroid 10257 Garecynthia was also named in honor of his marriage with Cynthia Marsden, daughter of former MPC director Brian G. Marsden.

References

External links

Gareth Williams' Personal Web Pages
at the Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian
Gareth V. Williams
''

''
(3202) Graff
at the Minor Planet Center {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Gareth V. 1965 births 21st-century American astronomers 20th-century British astronomers Living people People from Windlesham Planetary scientists

Career

Awards and honors

See also

References

External links