David Jewitt
David Clifford Jewitt (born 1958 in London). Jewitt\'s interest in astronomy was kindled in 1965, when he chanced to see some bright meteors. Media coverage of NASA\'s Apollo 8 and Apollo 11 lunar missions in 1968 and 1969 added to his enthusiasm. His own exploration of outer space began with a tabletop 40 mm refracting telescope that his grandparents gave him as a birthday present. In 1976, supported by a local authority grant, Jewitt enrolled at University College London to take courses in astronomy, physics, mathematics, computing, electronics, metalwork and technical drawing, studying both at UCL\'s Gower Street campus and at the UCL Observatory (then called the University of London Observatory) in Mill Hill. The module that he enjoyed most was a panoramic survey of physics delivered by the Christian, Rolls Royce driving space scientist Professor Sir Robert Boyd. Together with his friend, the future poet and environmental activist Roly Drower, Jewitt graduated with a first class honours B.Sc. in astronomy in 1979. Following the advice of UCL\'s Professor Michael Dworetsky, Jewitt decided to pursue his postgraduate studies at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. He became an Anthony Fellow at Caltech in 1979, achieving an M.S. in planetary science in 1980. After investigating planetary nebulae and comets with the 200 inch Hale telescope of the Mount Palomar Observatory, working with Ed Danielson and Gerry Neugebauer under the supervision of Professor James Westphal, he was awarded a Ph.D. in planetary science and astronomy in 1983. He has recalled his adventures in the Hale\'s vertiginous prime focus cage as occasionally a risk to life and limb. Jewitt\'s research interests have embraced many topics in planetary science, including the Kuiper belt, circumstellar discs, planetary ring systems, the physical properties of comets, frozen volatiles in asteroids, the moons of the gas giant planets and the formation and evolution of the Solar System. In 1992, after five years of searching, Jewitt and the Vietnamese-American astronomer Jane X. Luu discovered 15760 Albion, the first Kuiper belt object (other than Pluto and its largest moon Charon) to be detected. Since discovering 15760 Albion, Jewitt has identified dozens of other objects in the Kuiper belt in a series of pioneering wide field surveys. In 1979, in his first months as a graduate student, Jewitt discovered the Jovian moon Adrastea on images taken by Voyager 2. He has since discovered more than seventy further moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In 1982, he achieved worldwide fame as the first astronomer to recover Halley\'s Comet as it approached its 1986 perihelion, detecting it with the Hale telescope using an early CCD. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the discovery of more than forty asteroids. The inner main-belt asteroid 6434 Jewitt, discovered by Edward Bowell in 1981, was named in his honour. In the naming citation, published on 1 July 1996, Jane Luu described Jewitt as \"the consummate astronomer\" (M.P.C. 27462).
