Alexander Dessler, an emeritus professor of physics and astronomy, has published a personal history of the early days of Rice’s Space Science Department in the journal Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists. Dessler, who joined Rice in 1963, founded what was the world’s first university department of space science. In his autobiographical history, he notes the department came together when the university decided to act after President John F. Kennedy’s moon speech at Rice in 1962. Dessler’s innovative solar physics research earned him the National Academy of Sciences Arctowski Medal in 2015.
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