John Trauger
Dr. John Trauger is a Senior Research Scientist
with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He received
his B.A. in physics from Oberlin College, and his
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University
of Wisconsin-Madison.
Trauger is the Principal Investigator for the Wide
Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on the Hubble
Space Telescope. In 1985, WFPC2 was conceived as
a wide-field photometric camera to replace the WF/PC
originally launched with the telescope in 1990.
In June 1990, following analysis of the first images
from Hubble, he proposed to NASA to correct for
Hubble's spherical aberration by refiguring small
mirrors within WFPC2, a solution which ultimately
delivered fully restored imaging. In 1994 he was
awarded NASA's Outstanding Leadership Medal for
his work with the WFPC2 science program. In 1997
he received the Masursky Award for service to planetary
science from the American Astronomical Society's
Division of Planetary Science.
Trauger is currently developing highly corrected
optical instrumentation for space astronomy. His
research interests center on the origins and nature
of solar-system objects, with focus on the atmospheres
and magnetospheres of the outer planets and implications
for planetary evolution. He is a member of the NASA
science working groups currently working on the
Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument to be installed
in the Hubble Space Telescope in 2004, and the Next
Generation Space Telescope scheduled for launch
in 2009.
|
