Ramsey Named Head of Department of
Astronomy and Astrophysics

31 March 2004 --Lawrence W. Ramsey, professor of astronomy and astrophysics, has been named head of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at Penn State. He succeeds Peter Mészáros, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, who served as head of the department since 1993.

Ramsey has been a member of the Penn State astronomy faculty since receiving his Ph.D. degree from Indiana University in 1976. One of his greatest achievements during this time has been his role as the project scientist for one of the largest and most unique telescopes in the world, the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, which is located in West Texas and is operated jointly by Penn State and four other partner universities. Ramsey has been intensely involved in the design, construction, operation, and management of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope since 1983, when he invented the concept for this telescope along with Daniel W. Weedman, also a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at Penn State at that time.

"Dr. Ramsey has provided inspiration and leadership for the large team of astronomers, students, and technicians who have worked on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, giving all involved world-class training in cutting edge scientific technology," says Daniel J. Larson, the Verne M. Willaman Dean of the Eberly College of Science. "His scientific achievements and his leadership will have a great impact on the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics and the Eberly College of Science."

The telescope, which saw its first starlight in 1996, received the 1997 Discovery Magazine Award for Technological Innovation for its innovative design. This design so dramatically reduces costs that it immediately opened the door to a new construction era for such large-sized telescopes. In June 1998 for example, the government of South Africa approved the construction of the South African Large Telescope (SALT), the first clone of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. SALT, which saw its first starlight in November 2003, is now in the engineering commissioning phase and will be the largest single optical telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

Now known worldwide for his pioneering work in fiber-optic astronomical instrumentation as well as with the Hobby-Eberly telescope, Ramsey is leading the Penn State effort on the Fiber Instrument Feed and Medium Resolution Spectrograph for the telescope. His research interests, in addition to astronomical instrumentation, include visible and near-infrared spectroscopy of pre-main-sequence and late-type stars. 

Ramsey received his undergraduate degree in 1968 from the University of Missouri at St. Louis, his master’s degree from Kansas State University in 1972, and his doctoral degree in 1976 from Indiana University. He began his professional career in 1966 as an aircraft and spacecraft simulation-systems engineer at McDonnell Douglas Corporation, a position he held until 1970. His work in this position involved the training of astronauts for NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs. He then became a research assistant at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

After joining the Penn State faculty in 1976, he was promoted to associate professor in 1982, to full professor in 1988, and served as interim head of the department from 1999 to 2000. In addition to his current position at Penn State, he is a senior research fellow at the University of Texas at Austin and the project scientist for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope.

Ramsey has served on numerous national and international committees and is a member of the American Astronomical Society, the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the International Astronomical Union. He currently serves as chair of the management oversight council for the international Gemini Observatory, and is member of the board of directors of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) and of the South African Large Telescope.

He has more than 60 papers published in refereed journals and has contributed to numerous conference proceedings and books. He has supervised more than ten graduate students, developed courses, and presented numerous seminars at national and international conferences, universities, and research laboratories. He was honored by the Alumni Society of the Penn State Eberly College of Science with its Distinguished Service Award in 1997, and by the Alumni Society of St Louis University with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001.

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