Richard R. Fisher is an American astrophysicist who worked in academia and at

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 ...

. He retired in 2012. Fisher received his BA with honors from Grinnell College in 1961 and his PhD in astrogeophysics from University of Colorado in 1965. In May 2019 he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science by Grinnell College. He was an assistant professor at University of Hawaii from 1965 to 1971, a staff scientist and then section head at the Sacramento Peak Observatory from 1971 to 1976, and worked at the National Center for Atmospheric Research from 1975 to 1991. He joined NASA in 1991 as the branch chief for the Solar Physics Branch at the

Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory located approximately northeast of Washington, D.C., in Greenbelt, Maryland, United States. Established on May 1, 1959, as NASA's first space flight center, GSFC ...

from 1991 to 1998, was the laboratory chief for the Laboratory for Astrophysics and Solar Physics at Goddard from 1998 to 2002. He was a primary investigator on the Spartan and other satellite projects that were launched from several Space Shuttle missions

STS-56 STS-56 was a NASA Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' mission to perform special experiments. It was Discovery's 16th flight. The mission was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on April 8, 1993. Crew Crew seat assignments Mission h ...

STS-64 STS-64 was a Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery'' mission that was set to perform multiple experiment packages. It was Discovery's 19th flight. STS-64 was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 9 September 1994, and land ...

STS-69 STS-69 was a Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' mission, and the second flight of the Wake Shield Facility (WSF). The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 7 September 1995. It was the 100th successful crewed NASA spaceflight, not inc ...

STS-87 STS-87 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center on 19 November 1997. It was the 88th flight of the Space Shuttle and the 24th flight of '' Columbia''. The mission goals were to conduct experiments ...

, and

STS-95 STS-95 was a Space Shuttle mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 29 October 1998, using the orbiter Space Shuttle Discovery, ''Discovery''. It was the 25th flight of ''Discovery'' and the 92nd mission flown since the start of the ...

, which measured solar wind and other solar emissions, and he was responsible for coordinating the work of Spartan with the European

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) is a European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft built by a European industrial consortium led by Matra Marconi Space (now Airbus Defence and Space) that was launched on a Lockheed Martin Atlas IIAS la ...

. From 2002 until his retirement in 2012, he was the director of the Sun-Earth Connections Division, deputy director of the Earth–Sun Systems Division and then director of the Heliophysics Division at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C. As director of the Heliophysics Division, his division flew more satellites than any other NASA division, and he was responsible for a $630 million annual budget and had to manage high expectations for solar research within the budgetary restraints caused by the 2007-2009 US recession. He was responsible for the development and launch of the

Solar Dynamics Observatory The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which has been observing the Sun since 2010. Launched on 11 February 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. The goal of the LWS program is to develop the ...

in 2010, which Fisher said "would do for heliophysics what the Hubble Space Telescope has done for astrophysics in general", and the first images from which were widely hailed in the media. He was a spokesman for NASA in 2010 when it announced that the sun was entering a

cycle Cycle, cycles, or cyclic may refer to: Anthropology and social sciences * Cyclic history, a theory of history * Cyclical theory, a theory of American political history associated with Arthur Schlesinger, Sr. * Social cycle, various cycles in ...

of increasingly powerful storms that would peak in 2013.Andrew Hough for the Telegraph 14 Jun 201
NASA warns solar flares from 'huge space storm' will cause devastation
/ref> He also announced the release of NASA's second smart phone app, the 3D sun, which allowed people to monitor the sun in realtime.Betsy Mason for Wired. Feb 17, 201
NASA Brings The Dark Side Of The Sun To Your IPhone
/ref> He was the recipient of a

Presidential Rank Award The Presidential Rank Awards program is an individual award program granted by the United States government to career Senior Executive Service (SES) members and Senior Career Employees within the OPM-allocated Senior-Level (SL) or Scientific-Profe ...

in the Senior Executive Service in 2007 and was presented with NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 2011. It was said of him in 2014 that "If it's solar astronomy at NASA, it's Dick Fisher".Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. May 23, 2014
Video: How Skylab Changed Solar Astronomy into Heliophysics
Introductory remarks by

Paul E. Ceruzzi Paul E. Ceruzzi (born 1949) is curator emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Life Ceruzzi received a BA from Yale University in 1970 and received a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 1981, both in A ...

. from 0 to 3:10. See 3:05 into the video for the quotation.

References

External links

Biography at NASA
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Richard R. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people NASA people American astrophysicists Grinnell College alumni University of Colorado alumni