BIOGRAPHY:
ROBERT D. GEHRZ, PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY,
CHAIR,
OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ASTRONOMY
PROFESSIONAL:
Robert D. Gehrz
was born in Evanston, Illinois
and grew up in St. Paul, MN
where he graduated from Central
High School in 1963. He received a BA in Physics from the University of Minnesota
in 1967 and a PhD in Physics from the University of Minnesota
in 1971. From 1972 until 1985, Gehrz was
on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Wyoming where, in collaboration with
John A. Hackwell, he built the Wyoming Infrared
Observatory Wyoming Infrared
Observatory. The 2.34-meter Wyoming Infrared Telescope, funded
jointly by the State of Wyoming
and The National Science Foundation, was the largest IR telescope in the world
at the time of its completion in 1977. Since 1985, Gehrz
has been a Professor of Physics and
Astronomy and Director of the Observatories
at the University
of Minnesota. He has been
Chairman of the Department since 2005. He is a frequent guest observer at
ground based and space based observatories world-wide. In addition
to conducting an extensive research effort in ground based infrared
astronomical observations and instrumentation development, Gehrz
is a member of the Science Working Group SWG for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope with
Facility Scientist responsibilities for the Cryogenic Telescope Assembly
(CTA). His space infrared astronomy research has included programs
conducted with the (International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO),
the European Space Agency’s Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the new Chandra X-ray Observatory.
He was elected a Fellow of the Explorers
Club in 1979, a Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995, and a Fellow of the
American Physical Society in
2004. He was Chairman and member of the Board of the International Gemini Project during 1996-
1999 and was President of the American
Astronomical Society during 1999-2000. During 2001, he
served as a member of the Committee on the Organization and Management of
Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics (COMRAA).
Gehrz is a past chair and member of the NSF/NASA Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory
Committee (AAAC). He
currently serves as a member of the NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Product Integrity Team (PIT) that
reviews the optical telescope assembly and is the Leader of the NASA SOFIA Community Task Force (SCTF).
PERSONAL:
Gehrz and his wife Susan, a graduate of the University of Minnesota
and the former Mayor of Falcon
Heights, MN, have two children, both graduates of the University of Minnesota.
Alexander (31), lives in Seattle, WA
where he is Director of Housekeeping at the Watertown Hotel by day and a
rock musician in the band Enkrya
by night. Andrea (30), who lives in Portland,
OR is
an American Sign Language interpreter and the mother of grand daughter Angelene. In their spare time, Gehrz
and his wife cross country ski, paddle Minnesota's
waterways in their Dagger kayaks,
bicycle, renovate their old house, work on their N-gauge train layout, and
travel. Gehrz plays left wing for the Minneapolis
Buccaneers, an amateur ice hockey team in the Twin Cities Adult
Hockey Association. The Bucs won the 2007 National Championship in
their division at the USAHockey National Amateur
Championship Tournament in Las Vegas, NV.
In October 2007, he played left wing for the Olde Crabs Hockey Club at the National Senior Olympic
Hockey Championships in Blaine,
MN.
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