In a singular honor, Ghislaine Crozaz, Ph.D., professor of earth and planetary sciences, and Robert M. Walker, Ph.D., the McDonnell Professor of physics, both in Arts and Sciences, now have asteroids named for them.
Crozaz' asteroid is named (7112) Ghislaine = 1986 GV; Walker's is (6372) Walker = 1986. The discoverers of these bodies are famous astronomers Carolyn S. and Eugene M. Shoemaker. The two Washington University scientists were recommended for the honor by Carolyn Shoemaker, who sent the request to the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass. Crozaz and Walker are long-time faculty members here and are wife and husband.
Asteroids are considered to be remnants of the population of small bodies that date back to the formative stages of the planetary system. Asteroids are rotated around the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. They are rocky objects, composed of the same sorts of materials as the inner planets. Their composition is different than comets, which have much more water ice and frozen volatiles than asteroids.
Crozaz began her highly productive career 30 years ago with studies of nuclear particle tracks in lunar samples and meteorites. She has contributed to the understanding of the early history of the solar system and to the formation histories of various meteorite types through innovative studies of trace element microdistributions and extinct radionuclides in these objects.
As a professor of earth and planetary sciences in the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, she takes an active and enthusiastic role in training the next generation of planetary scientists.
Walker is a leading figure in the study of radiation damage in solids and in the investigation of interstellar grains recovered from meteorites. His work with others on fission tracks opened a new approach to the dating of rocks on the earth and the moon and led to new information on the energy spectrum, composition and flux of solar and galactic cosmic rays.
Walker founded whole new methods of scientific study and created the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, becoming its first director in 1975. He built an interdisciplinary center for the planetary sciences and astrophysics that spans several departments and involves more than 80 faculty members, research scientists and students.
