Neil Gehrels
Neil Gehrels | |
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| Born | Cornelis A. Gehrels October 3, 1952 Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | February 6, 2017 (aged 64) Berwyn Heights, Maryland, U.S. |
| Education | Caltech |
| Awards | Henry Draper Medal (2009) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Thesis | Energetic oxygen and sulfur ions in the Jovian magnetosphere (1982) |
| Edward C. Stone Rochus E. Vogt | |
Cornelis A. "Neil" Gehrels (October 3, 1952 – February 6, 2017) was an American astrophysicist specializing in the field of gamma-ray astronomy. He was Chief of the Astroparticle Physics Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) from 1995 until his death, and was best known for his work developing the field from early balloon instruments to space observatories such as the NASA Swift mission, for which he was the principal investigator. Gehrels led the WFIRST (later named the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope) wide-field infrared telescope towards a launch in August 2026. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Gehrels died on February 6, 2017, at the age of 64. On January 10, 2018, NASA announced that Swift had been renamed the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, in his honor.