10 Facts About Ian Axford

Sir William Ian Axford was a New Zealand space scientist who was director of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy from 1974 to 1990.

Ian Axford studied at Canterbury University in Christchurch for his double bachelor's degrees in science and engineering, followed by a double Master's in science with first class honours and in engineering with distinction, then undertook doctoral studies at the University of Manchester and received his PhD in 1960.

Ian Axford became a professor of physics and astronomy at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York in 1963.

Ian Axford later moved to the University of California, San Diego.

Ian Axford became a director at the Max Planck Institute for Aeronomy in 1974.

Ian Axford held that position, with a short break in which he was Vice Chancellor of the Victoria University of Wellington from 1982 to 1985, until his retirement in 2001.

The institute participated in the international missions Giotto to Halley's Comet, solar observatories Ulysses and SOHO while Ian Axford was director of the institute.

Ian Axford died at his home in Napier on 13 March 2010, aged 77, following a long illness.

Ian Axford received several awards, for example the John Adam Fleming Medal in 1972, the Tsiolkovsky Medal in 1987, the Chapman Medal, and the Rutherford Medal in 1994.

On his 60th birthday, the asteroid 5097 Ian Axford was named in his honour at an astronomical symposium in Germany.