Giacconi Leaves Smithsonian For NASA Astrophysics Job

Riccardo Giacconi, professor of Astronomy and a pioneer of modern x-ray astronomy, is leaving Cambridge to become the first director of NASA's new Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

Giacconi, currently an associate director of the Harvard/Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, was selected for the position by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) after a four month search, the Center's public relations director, James Cornell, said Wednesday.

Under the Auspices of AURA, the Institute will monitor and evaluate data received from the NASA Space Telescope, which is scheduled for launch from the Space Shuttle in 1985.

Harvey D. Tananbaum, who assisted with the Einstein satellite project, will replace Giacconi when the celebrated astrophysicist begins his new job in September, Cornell said.

Born in Italy, Giacconi completed his Ph.D. in physics at the University of Milan in 1954 and continued his studies in elementary particles at the University of Indiana and Princeton University with a Fulbright Fellowship. In the late fifties he joined American Science and Engineering Corp., where he began work in x-ray astronomy which led to the discovery of the first x-ray star in 1962.

In 1973 Giacconi became a member of the Harvard faculty and was appointed associate director of the High Energy Astrophysics division of the Center for Astrophysics, where he was principal investigator for the Einstein Observatory, a sophisticated x-ray satellite which was successfully launched in 1978.