Dr. Eberhard Gruen is this year’s recipient of the Gerard P. Kuiper
Prize. The Kuiper Prize is awarded annually by the Division for Planetary
Sciences (DPS), the largest division of the American Astronomical Society
(AAS). The Kuiper Prize was established by the DPS to recognize
outstanding contributors to planetary science (excluding work primarily
with the Sun or Earth), awarding scientists whose achievements have most
advanced our understanding of the solar system. This prize is the highest
professional honor awarded by the DPS.

Gruen will receive the Kuiper Prize and associated cash award at special
ceremonies on Wednesday afternoon, October 9, 2002, in the Ballroom of the
Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center in Birmingham, Alabama, the site of
this year’s DPS Meeting. He will then address the DPS membership; the
title of his lecture is “Dust Astronomy.”

Gruen received his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in 1970 and
continued there to become lecturer and senior scientist and leader of the
cosmic dust group. He has been a visiting researcher at the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Ames Research Center,and Jet Propulsion Laboratory, all NASA
centers, as well as at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston. He
has been Principal Investigator for dust experiments aboard Helios 1,
Helios 2, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, and Nozomi, and provided dust sensors
for Giotto.

Dr. Gruen is recognized for the discovery of interstellar grains passing
through the solar system, the discovery of Jupiter dust streams in
interplanetary space, and major insights into the science of
micrometeorites in space through the use of a variety of study
techniques. In 2000, Gruen was elected a Fellow of the American
Geophysical Union. Minor Planet 1981 EY20 was designated 4240 Gruen in
honor of his spacecraft measurements of interplanetary dust.

Speaking of his years of experience, he stated, “I entered the field of
dust research as a young scientist in the early days when the focus was on
understanding the hazards from dust to manned and unmanned space
activities. It was obvious that small meteor particles entering the Earth’s
atmosphere at very high speed will easily do harm to any spacecraft when
such a particle hits it. When it was recognized that shielding sensitive
space equipment could easily control this danger much interest went away.

“But dust has many other faces, which makes it an exciting subject of
astrophysical and planetary research. Dust particles come in various sizes,
compositions, and shapes. Therefore, a multitude of parameters have to be
determined in order to comprehensively characterize dust grains in space.
The description of the dynamics of dust involves many disciplines:
Keplerian dynamics, interactions with the radiation field and the plasma
and magnetic environment. Dust cannot easily be characterized, it follows
its own dynamics and disperses rapidly from its source, it is like smoke
from a fire. This aspect however has a positive side: dust gives messages
from remote processes and objects by which it was generated.

“Dust can be found everywhere in the solar system: From the heat in the
F-corona to the deep freeze of the Kuiper belt and the Oort cloud dust
plays an important role. We know today that almost each planet has its
dusty shell.

“Through its wide distribution in the solar system dust can tell stories
about its parents (comets, asteroids, satellites, and even interstellar
matter) which otherwise are not easily readable.

“Taking a multi-disciplinary approach involving in situ space measurements,
astronomical observations, theoretical studies, and laboratory
investigations makes progress in the field. The close cooperation of
astronomers, cosmochemists, dynamicist, and experimental physicists has, in
fact, proven beneficial in solving dusty problems. It has been a privilege
to work with many leading scientists in the various fields to help
developing the field of dust research. I am honored to receive the Kuiper
Price of the DPS.”