James Nelson Hallock (born January 23, 1941) is an American physicist. He has contributed to

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 ...

's Gemini and Apollo missions and served on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. He is a leading scientist in wake vortices, and co-authored two patents and over 150 papers. Hallock was born in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

, and earned his

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in 1963,

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in 1969, and Ph.D. in 1972 from

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. He has retired from the U.S. Department of Transportation as a senior scientist, Air and Space Transportation Safety at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. Hallock's career began as a graduate student, working for the MIT Instrumentation Lab (in the Apollo Optics Group) in 1963. During this time he gathered information on

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

landmarks to be used by guidance systems on the

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and Gemini space missions. He continued research with

's Electronic Research Center until 1970. In 1970 he left the Research Center to work at the Department of Transportation's Volpe Center. Here he began his lifelong work on wake vortices. In 1986 he was promoted to Division Manager of the Aviation Safety Division, and held that post until 2006. At that time the Secretary of Transportation promoted him to senior scientist. Most recently, in 2003, he was selected to sit on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. Here his expertise was used in determining the final reports and causes of that fateful disaster. Hallock was a longtime resident of

Waltham, Massachusetts Waltham ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, and was an early center for the labor movement as well as a major contributor to the Technological and industrial history of the United States, American Industrial Revoluti ...

, residing there for 50 years, 1972 to 2022.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hallock, James N. 21st-century American physicists 1941 births Living people