Samuel Thornton Durrance (
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientistA scientist, in the broadest sense, is any person who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the...
who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a
payload specialistIn NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist ' was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission...
.
Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in
Tallahassee, FloridaTallahassee is the capital of the State of Florida, USA, the county seat of Leon County , and the 133rd biggest city in the USA. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida in 1824. In 2008, the population recorded by the U.S...
, but considers
Tampa, FloridaTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
his hometown. He received a
Bachelor of ScienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
degree and a
Master of ScienceA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries...
degree in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
(with honors), at
California State University, Los AngelesCalifornia State University, Los Angeles is a public university, part of the California State University system...
, 1972 and 1974, respectively, and a
Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
degree in astro-geophysics at the
University of Colorado at BoulderThe University of Colorado at Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system and was founded five months before Colorado was admitted to the union in 1876...
, 1980.
Durrance was a Principal Research Scientist in the Department of Physics and
AstronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
at
Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins also maintains full-time campuses elsewhere in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, China, and Singapore...
,
Baltimore, MarylandBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
.
Samuel Thornton Durrance (
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
) is an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
scientistA scientist, in the broadest sense, is any person who engages in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices and traditions that are linked to schools of thought or philosophy. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the...
who flew aboard two NASA Space Shuttle missions as a
payload specialistIn NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist ' was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission...
.
Background
Durrance was born September 17, 1943, in
Tallahassee, FloridaTallahassee is the capital of the State of Florida, USA, the county seat of Leon County , and the 133rd biggest city in the USA. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida in 1824. In 2008, the population recorded by the U.S...
, but considers
Tampa, FloridaTampa is a Gulf Coast city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of the state of Florida in the United States. It serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County. The population of Tampa in 2000 was 303,447...
his hometown. He received a
Bachelor of ScienceA Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years ....
degree and a
Master of ScienceA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries...
degree in
physicsPhysics is a natural science; it is the study of matter and its motion through spacetime and all that derives from these, such as energy and force...
(with honors), at
California State University, Los AngelesCalifornia State University, Los Angeles is a public university, part of the California State University system...
, 1972 and 1974, respectively, and a
Doctor of PhilosophyDoctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
degree in astro-geophysics at the
University of Colorado at BoulderThe University of Colorado at Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system and was founded five months before Colorado was admitted to the union in 1876...
, 1980.
Durrance was a Principal Research Scientist in the Department of Physics and
AstronomyAstronomy is the scientific study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the Earth's atmosphere...
at
Johns Hopkins UniversityThe Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Johns Hopkins also maintains full-time campuses elsewhere in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Italy, China, and Singapore...
,
Baltimore, MarylandBaltimore is an independent city and the largest city in the state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore City in order to distinguish it from surrounding...
. He was a co-investigator for the
Hopkins Ultraviolet TelescopeThe Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope was a space telescope designed to make spectroscopic observations in the far-ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum...
, one of the instruments of the Astro
ObservatoryA space observatory is any instrument in outer space which is used for observation of distant planets, galaxies, and other outer space objects...
.
Starting in 2000, he was the executive director of the
Florida Space Research InstituteThe Florida Space Research Institute is a state-wide center for space research. It was established by Florida's governor and legislature in 1999. The institute was created in an effort to increase collaboration between the academic, government and private organizations with regard to aerospace...
which was located at the NASA
Kennedy Space CenterThe John F. Kennedy Space Center is the NASA space vehicle launch facility and Launch Control Center on Merritt Island, Brevard County, Florida, United States. The site is near Cape Canaveral, midway between Miami and Jacksonville, Florida. It is long and around wide, covering . A total of...
.
He now resides in Melbourne, Florida where he goes to church at Faith Fellowship Church and is a professor of Physics and Space Sciences at Florida Tech.
He is a member of the
American Astronomical SocietyThe American Astronomical Society is a US society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The basic objective of the AAS is to promote the advancement of astronomy and closely related branches of science...
,
American Geophysical UnionThe American Geophysical Union is a nonprofit organization of geophysicists, consisting of over 50,000 members from over 135 countries. AGU's activities are focused on the organization and dissemination of scientific information in the interdisciplinary and international field of geophysics...
,
International Astronomical UnionThe International Astronomical Union is a collection of professional astronomers, at the Ph.D. level and beyond, active in professional research and education in astronomy...
,
Association of Space ExplorersThe Association of Space Explorers is a non-profit organization with a membership composed of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space . It was founded in 1985, and the current membership stands at 320 from 34 different countries...
,
Planetary SocietyThe Planetary Society is a large, publicly supported, non-government and non-profit organization that has many research projects related to astronomy. It was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, and has members from 125 countries around the world...
, and
Phi Kappa PhiThe Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi was established to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study and to promote the "unity and democracy of education"...
.
Academic career
Durrance has been involved in the flight
hardwareHardware is a general term for the physical artifacts of a technology. It may also mean the physical components of a computer system, in the form of computer hardware....
development, optical and
mechanicalMechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effect of the bodies on their environment....
design,
constructionIn the fields of architecture and civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the building or assembling of infrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat of multitasking...
, and integration of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope and the Astro Observatory. He has conducted research and directed graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University for the past 15 years. He has designed and built
spectrometerA spectrometer is an instrument used to measure properties of light over a specific portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, typically used in spectroscopic analysis to identify materials. The variable measured is most often the light's intensity but could also, for instance, be the polarization...
s, detectors, and
imagingImaging is the representation or reproduction of an object's outward form; especially a visual representation .-Imaging methodologies and technologies:*Chemical imaging, the simultaneous measurement of spectra and pictures...
systems, and made numerous
spacecraftA spacecraft is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space then returns to the Earth. For an orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters a closed orbit around the planetary body. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as...
and ground-based astronomical observations. He conceived and directed a program at Johns Hopkins University to develop adaptive-optics instrumentation for ground based astronomy. He led the team that designed and constructed the Adaptive Optics Coronagraph, which led to the discovery of the first cool
brown dwarfBrown dwarfs are sub-stellar objects with a mass below that necessary to maintain hydrogen-burning nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, as do stars on the main sequence, but which have fully convective surfaces and interiors, with no chemical differentiation by depth...
orbiting a nearby star. He also a co-discoverer of changes in the planet-forming disk surrounding the star
beta PictorisBeta Pictoris is the second brightest star in the constellation Pictor. It is located 63.4 light years from our solar system, and is 1.75 times as massive and 8.7 times as luminous as the Sun. The Beta Pictoris system is very young, only 8–20 million years old although it is already in the main...
.
His research interests include the origin and evolution of the
solar systemThe Solar System consists of the Sun and those celestial objects bound to it by gravity, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago...
, the search for
planetA planet , is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.The term planet is ancient, with ties to history, science,...
s around other
starA star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma that is held together by gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth. Other stars are visible in the night sky, when they are not outshone by the Sun...
s, planetary astronomy,
atmospheric physicsAtmospheric physics is the application of physics to the study of the atmosphere. Atmospheric physicists attempt to model Earth's atmosphere and the atmospheres of the other planets using fluid flow equations, chemical models, radiation balancing, and energy transfer processes in the atmosphere...
,
nuclear physicsNuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei.The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power and nuclear weapons, but the research has provided wider applications, including those in medicine , materials...
,
adaptive opticsAdaptive optics is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effects of rapidly changing optical distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, and in retinal imaging systems...
,
spacecraftA spacecraft is a craft or machine designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters space then returns to the Earth. For an orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters a closed orbit around the planetary body. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as...
operations, and the origin of life. He has published over 60 technical papers in professional journals covering these topics.
Durrance logged over 615 hours in space as a
payload specialistIn NASA vernacular, a Payload Specialist ' was an individual selected and trained by commercial or research organizations for flights of a specific payload on a Space Shuttle mission...
and member of the crew of
Space Shuttle ColumbiaSpace Shuttle Columbia was the first spaceworthy Space Shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. First launched on the STS-1 mission, the first of the Space Shuttle program, it flew a total of 27 times before being destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 on the STS-107 mission , killing all seven...
for the
STS-35STS-35 was the tenth flight of Space Shuttle Columbia, the thirty-eighth shuttle flight, and a mission devoted to deploying ASTRO-1, an observatory consisting of 4 telescopes. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on December 2, 1990....
/Astro-1 and
Space Shuttle EndeavourSpace Shuttle Endeavour is one of three currently operational orbiters in the Space Shuttle fleet of NASA, the space agency of the United States. Endeavour is the fifth and final spaceworthy NASA space shuttle to be built, constructed as a replacement for Challenger...
for the
STS-67STS-67 was a human spaceflight mission using that launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on March 2, 1995.-Crew:-Mission parameters:*Mass: 13,116 kg payload*Perigee: 305 km*Apogee: 305 km...
/Astro-2 missions.
Current Assignment (2006)
Durrance is currently employed by the
Florida Institute of TechnologyFlorida Institute of Technology, also known as Florida Tech, is a private, independent technical university located in Melbourne, Florida...
in Melbourne, Florida, serving as a professor in the Department of Physics and Space Sciences.
He is one of the pioneers of the new Space Sciences:
AstrobiologyAstrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe...
option at Florida Tech (2008).
Within the last two years he has taught several undergraduate classes including Astronomy Methods and Instrumentation, Comparative Planetology, and Astrobiology.
He has also worked with graduate and undergraduate students on research dealing with astronaut health and bone loss, the detection of extrasolar planets, and very long baseline interferometry.
External links