Stamatios Krimigis
Stamatios (Tom) M. Krimigis (Greek: Σταμάτιος Κριμιζής) is a Greek-American scientist in space exploration. He has contributed to many of the United States' unmanned space exploration programs of the Solar System and beyond. He has contributed to exploration missions to every planet of the Solar System. In 1999, the International Astronomical Union named the asteroid 8323 Krimigis (previously 1979 UH) in his honor.
Dr. Stamatios Krimigis was born in Chios Island, Greece. He received his B. Physics from the University of Minnesota (1961), his M.S (1963) and Ph.D (1965) in Physics from the University of Iowa, and served on the faculty there. In 1968 he moved to the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, headed the Space Physics and Instrumentation group, became Chief Scientist in 1980, Space Department Head in 1991, and Emeritus Head in 2004. He was elected to the Academy of Athens in 2004 and occupies the Chair of “Science of Space”.
Dr. Krimigis is Principal Investigator on several NASA spacecraft, including Voyagers 1 and 2 to the Outer Planets and the Voyager Interstellar Mission, and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. He has designed and built instruments that have flown to all eight planets, and also the New Horizons mission that investigated Pluto in 2015, the only scientist who has sent instruments to every planet. He has published more than 580 papers in journals and books on the physics of the sun, interplanetary medium, planetary magnetospheres, and the heliosphere, and is Co-editor of the book Saturn from Cassini-Huygens (Springer, 2009).
Dr. Krimigis is recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal three times, is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), American Geophysical Union (AGU), American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), recipient of COSPAR’s Space Science Award in 2002, and in 1994 of the Basic Sciences Award of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) where he chaired the Board of Trustees for Basic Sciences (2001-2015). He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from the University of the Aegean (12/2009, Financial and Management Engineering), University of Athens (05/2010 Department of Physics), and International Hellenic University (5/2011, Science of Engineering).
On September 2012 he received the 2012 IAA Laurels Award for Team Achievement to leading NASA’S MESSENGER mission to Mercury. The European Geosciences Union awarded him the Jean Dominique Cassini Medal and Honorary Membership, and the AIAA the James A. Van Allen Space Environments Award, both for 2014. He received the Trophy for Lifetime Achievement by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) in 2015, the American Astronautical Society (AAS) Space Flight Award (2016), the NASM Trophy for Current Achievement (New Horizons Team-2016) and the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, also in 2016. Also, as member of NASA’s New Horizons mission he received the 2016 IAA Laurels Award for Team Achievement.
Honors
Fellow, APS, AGU, AAAS, AIAA.
Lifetime Achievement Award, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (2004).
Member of the Academy of Athens, Chair of Science of Space (2004).
COSPAR Space Science Award (2002).
Smithsonian Institution Trophy (2002).
Aviation Week and Space Technology Laurels in Space Award (1996, 2001).
NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (1981, 1986, 2014).
Basic Sciences Award, International Academy of Astronautics (1994).
Council of European Aerospace Societies Gold Medal (2011).
National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement Trophy Award (2015).
American Astronomical Society Space Flight Award (2016).
NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (2016).
Over 40 NASA and ESA Group Achievement Awards.
[1], [2]
Sources
[1] "Maria Tsakos Foundation"
[2] "Columbian College of Arts & Sciences" Wikipedia
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