Donald M. Hunten papers

Donald M. Hunten was born in Montreal on March 1, 1925. He earned a Ph.D. from McGill University, Montreal in 1950. After earning his doctorate he became an assistant professor at the University Saskatchewan. In 1963 Hunten moved to Kitt Peak National Observatory where he joined the newly formed space research group lead by Joe Chamberlain.

In 1974 he moved to the 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).

Don Hunten was a major contributor to the unmanned space program. He was very involved in the planning and implementation of many of the NASA planetary missions including Pioneer, Venus, Voyager, Galileo and Cassini.

Dr. Donald M. Hunten retired from the University of Arizona in 2001 but remained scientifically productive through his retirement publishing single author papers in and up until a couple of years before he died on December 14th, 2010