Roger Angel facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Roger Angel
|
|
|---|---|
| Born |
James Roger Prior Angel
February 7, 1941 |
| Nationality | American, British |
| Education | Oxford (B.A., Ph.D.) California Institute of Technology (M.S.) |
| Known for | Spin casting Lobster-eye optics Space sunshade |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astrophysics, Optics |
| Institutions | Columbia University University of Arizona |
James Roger Prior Angel (born February 7, 1941) is a British-American astrophysicist. An astrophysicist is a scientist who studies space and the universe. He is famous for helping to design and build huge optics (special lenses or mirrors) for telescopes. These optics are also used for solar power and other cool projects.
Dr. Angel created special ways to make giant mirrors. These methods are called spin casting and stressed lap polishing. They are used at the University of Arizona's Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab. Thanks to his work, some of the biggest telescopes in the world have amazing mirrors. He is a top professor at the University of Arizona, teaching about astronomy and optical sciences.
Studying to Be a Scientist
James Roger Prior Angel went to several important universities. He earned his first degree, a BA, from St Peter's College, Oxford, in 1963. Then, he got his Master's degree (MS) from California Institute of Technology in 1966. He finished his studies with a PhD from the University of Oxford in 1967.
While he was at Oxford's Clarendon Laboratory, he built an early computer. This computer helped him make the first direct measurement of an atom's electric quadrupole moment. This is a tiny property of an atom.
Amazing Discoveries and Ideas
Dr. Angel has taught at Columbia University. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a group of top scientists. In 1990, he became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 1979, he came up with a new idea for seeing X-rays. He called it the lobster-eye optics principle. It's like how a lobster's eye works, but for X-rays!
In 2006, Dr. Angel suggested a very big idea to help with global warming. He proposed building a giant "space sunshade" in space. This sunshade would be made of trillions of tiny disks. Each disk would be about 0.6 meters wide and weigh only 1 gram. They would be made of a special material that bends light.
These disks would be launched into space in huge stacks. They would travel to a special spot between Earth and the Sun called Lagrange point 1. Once there, the individual disks would spread out. They would stay in place by using the pressure from sunlight. Together, this cloud of disks would block a small amount of sunlight from reaching Earth. This would be enough to help cool our planet. He believed this sunshield could be built in about 25 years.
On August 23, 2012, Dr. Angel and his cool inventions were featured on a radio show called Morning Edition on NPR.
Awards and Honors
James Roger Prior Angel has received many important awards for his work:
- 1976 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize in Astronomy
- 1996 MacArthur Fellows Program
- 2007 Joseph Fraunhofer Award/Robert M. Burley Prize
- 2010 Kavli Prize for Astrophysics
- 2016 National Inventors Hall of Fame
