Dr. Donald N. B. Hall was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. According to a press release from
Dr. Donald N. B. Hall was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. According to a press release from the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as part of the astronomy section, Hall was elected as an AAAS Fellow “for distinguished contributions to the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomy at the University of Hawaii and on Mauna Kea, and infrared telescope, instrument and sensor technology.”
Hall served as director of the UH Institute for Astronomy from 1984-97. He previously served as deputy director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which operates the science program for the Hubble Space Telescope. He is currently an astronomer within the IfA, and works at the Hilo office.
The main focus of his current work is developing infrared detector arrays for astronomical instruments mounted on telescopes on the ground and in space. The HAWAII detector arrays he developed have been flown on NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, Deep Impact comet mission and Wide Field Survey Explorer. Fifteen are being integrated into instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope for launch in 2018. His arrays are also in use at observatories around the world, including all eight telescopes on Mauna Kea.
Hall will be one of 388 new Fellows to receive an official certificate and gold and blue (representing science and engineering, respectively) rosette pin Feb. 15 during the 2014 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.
