Stanley Dermott (born August 14, 1942, deceased May 20, 2025) is a British-American astrophysicist and educator. He has been part of the faculty at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

since 1989 including holding a research foundation professorship from 1997 to 2000 and serving as chair of the department of astronomy from 1993 to 2009. In 2002 he was awarded the degree of

Doctor of Science A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in the field of

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

dynamics. He is credited with the identification of Dermott's law which is named after him. His body of work also includes contributions to the study of planetary origins,

zodiacal dust The interplanetary dust cloud, or zodiacal cloud (as the source of the zodiacal light), consists of cosmic dust (small particles floating in outer space) that pervades the space between planets within planetary systems, such as the Solar System ...

bands,

resonance Resonance is a phenomenon that occurs when an object or system is subjected to an external force or vibration whose frequency matches a resonant frequency (or resonance frequency) of the system, defined as a frequency that generates a maximu ...

effects of planetary satellites, mechanics of

planetary rings A ring system is a disc or torus orbiting an astronomical object that is composed of solid material such as dust, meteoroids, planetoids, moonlets, or stellar objects. Ring systems are best known as planetary rings, common components of sate ...

tidal interactions The tidal force or tide-generating force is the difference in gravitational attraction between different points in a gravitational field, causing bodies to be pulled unevenly and as a result are being stretched towards the attraction. It is the d ...

, the statistics of asteroid rotation rates, and the dynamical structure of the asteroid belt. The main-belt asteroid 3647 Dermott was formally named after him on January 11, 1986.

References

1942 births 20th-century American astronomers 20th-century British astronomers 21st-century American astronomers 21st-century British astronomers American astrophysicists British astrophysicists British expatriate academics in the United States Living people {{UK-astronomer-stub