12 Facts About Tom Gehrels

Tom Gehrels was born in bible-belt Netherlands, and was forced to attend church regularly, an act he despised.

Tom Gehrels continued his education at the University of Chicago where he obtained his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in 1956 under Professor Gerard P Kuiper.

Tom Gehrels was Principal Investigator for the Imaging Photopolarimeter experiment on the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 first flybys of Jupiter and Saturn in the 1970s.

Tom Gehrels initiated the Space Science Series of textbooks, was General Editor for the first 30 volumes of the University of Arizona Press, and set the style by participating in the editing of six of them.

Tom Gehrels initiated the Spacewatch program in 1980 and was its Principal Investigator for electronic surveying to obtain statistics of asteroids and comets, including near-Earth asteroids.

Tom Gehrels taught an undergraduate course for non-science majors in Tucson in the Fall, and lectured a brief version of that in the Spring at the Physical Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad, India.

Tom Gehrels was the named winner of the 2007 Harold Masursky Award for his outstanding service to planetary science.

Tom Gehrels was requested by the Journal Nature to write a review on a book regarding Wernher von Braun, in which he quotes inmates of concentration camp Dora.

Tom Gehrels has therefore charged that von Braun was there regularly and much in charge, and that von Braun bears greater responsibility and guilt than his official biography would imply.

Tom Gehrels was the husband of Aleida J Gehrels and father of Neil Gehrels, George Gehrels and Jo-Ann Gehrels.

The minor planet 1777 Tom Gehrels was named in his honour.

The professional and personal papers of Tom Gehrels are held at the University of Arizona.