Head and shoulders image of Dr. Donald M. Hunten, Professor of Physics, 1953-1962.

Bio/Historical Note: Dr. Donald M. Hunten was born in Montreal on 1 March 1925. He earned a PhD from McGill University in 1950. After graduation he became an assistant professor of Physics at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1963 Dr. Hunten moved to Kitt Peak National Observatory (Arizona) where he joined a newly formed space research group. In 1974 Dr. Hunten moved to the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) at the University of Arizona where he continued his research of the planetary atmosphere. In 1977 he became a professor of Planetary Sciences and eventually a Regents Professor at LPL. Dr. Hunten received many honors during his career. In 1982 he was inducted into the National Academy of Science, He was awarded the Kuiper Prize of the Division Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society and in 1998 he was honored with the Adam Fleming Medal of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). Dr. Hunten was a major contributor to the unmanned space program and was very involved in the planning and implementation of many of the NASA planetary missions including Pioneer, Venus, Voyager, Galileo and Cassini. Dr. Hunten retired from the University of Arizona in 2001 but remained scientifically productive through his retirement, publishing single author papers in Nature and Icarus up until a few years before his death on 14 December 2010.