Dr. George Gatewood

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, George Gatewood came to Pittsburgh in 1970 to do astrometry. Since 1977, he has been the director of the University of Pittsburgh's Allegheny Observatory in Riverview Park. The MAP (Multichannel Astrometric Photometer) that Gatewood designed and built has been central in his recent discovery of planets around the nearby star Lalande 21185. A very modest researcher, he has watched with humorous interest while the press splashed his discovery from Science News (June 15th), Sky and Telescope, and Astronomy Magazine to newspapers around the world including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 24th) and the front page of the New York Times. The next step for Dr. Gatewood is to finish the new-and-improved MAP for use on the 10 meter Keck telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

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