Richard Stothers was an

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 ...

and planetary scientist with the

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in Ne ...

, which he joined in June 1961 as a graduate student. Within two years, he had received his Ph.D. from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

and became a permanent staff member of the institute, where he spent the remainder of his career. He contributed to the modern understanding of the origin and evolution of stars and, later in life, to climate science. He was able to read original papers in several languages, which allowed him to extract information on historical climate change from ancient writings. Stothers also examined ancient reports of

unidentified flying objects An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shape ...

and examined the factual basis for myths of "giant serpents". Stothers was raised in New York and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. He was a member of the Cum Laude Society. He attended college at Princeton, where he was a member of the fencing team, and majored in mathematics. His thesis was entitled “The Problem of Pulsating Stellar Models.” Stothers was an author on at least 196 scientific papers during his career, stretching from 1963 to 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stothers, Richard American planetary scientists Princeton University alumni Harvard University alumni 1939 births 2011 deaths