January 2, 1996 Contact: Robert Irion (408/459-2495)

OPTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA LAUDS DESIGNER OF KECK TELESCOPE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Jerry Nelson, an astronomer at UCO/Lick Observatory, UC Santa Cruz, will receive the 1996 Joseph Fraunhofer Award from the Optical Society of America in honor of his work during the last two decades on the W. M. Keck Telescope in Hawaii.

Nelson, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics, is the principal designer and project scientist for the Keck Telescope and its twin, Keck II, which is nearly complete. The largest optical telescope in the world, Keck has profoundly influenced ground-based astronomy since it began taking scientific data in 1993. It features a mirror 33 feet wide, a girth made possible by Nelson's innovative concept: a honeycombed array of 36 hexagonal mirror segments aligned precisely by computers to act as a single reflective surface.

"You are recognized for your exceptionally creative contributions to the design, engineering, manufacture, and testing of the ten-meter Keck Telescope," stated David Hennage, executive director of the Optical Society of America, in a letter to Nelson. "By your conceiving of totally new ways of doing things and by implementing them through novel, ingenious, and practical means, the world's largest . . . optical telescope became a reality. Without you, the two Keck telescopes would probably not exist today."

The Joseph Fraunhofer Award was created in 1982 to honor significant accomplishments in the field of optical engineering. The award includes the Robert M. Burley Prize, established in 1992 to honor Robert M. Burley, who exemplified many of the highest attributes of the optical engineer and was the first recipient of the Fraunhofer Award. Nelson will receive a silver medal, certificate, and $1,000 honorarium in October at the annual meeting of the Optical Society of America in Rochester, New York.

Nelson came to UCSC in 1994 after many years at UC Berkeley. He received his B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in elementary particle physics from UC Berkeley. Last year, the American Astronomical Society bestowed one of its top awards on Nelson, the 1995 Dannie Heineman Prize for Astrophysics.

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