| Riccardo Giacconi  Born: 6-Oct-1931
Birthplace: Genoa, Italy
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Occupation: Astronomer, Physicist Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Discovered cosmic X-ray sources American astrophysicist Riccardo Giacconi won the Nobel Prize in 2002, for his discovery of cosmic x-ray sources. In 1962, while working as an astronomer at the private firm American Science and Engineering, he discovered Scorpius X-1, the first known source of x-rays from beyond our solar system. Two years later he discovered Cygnus X-1, the first object to be generally accepted as a black hole by most astronomers. He led the design and development of the Uhuru and Einstein X-Ray Observatories, and was the first director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, which oversaw the scientific operations of the Hubble space telescope. Father: Antonio Giacconi (shopkeeper)
Mother: Elsa Canni Giacconi (math and physics teacher, div. 1940)
Wife: Mirella (high school sweetheart, translator)
Daughter: Guia
Daughter: Anna
Son: Marc (d. 1991)
University: PhD Astrophysics, University of Milan (1954)
Fellow: Research, Indiana University Bloomington (1956-58)
Fellow: Cosmic Ray Laboratory, Princeton University (1958-59)
Scholar: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Harvard University (1973-81)
Professor: Astronomy, Harvard University (1973-82)
Administrator: Space Telescope Science Institute (1981-92)
Professor: Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University (1981-99)
Professor: Physics and Astronomy, University of Munich (1991-99)
Administrator: European Southern Observatory (1993-99)
Professor: Research Professor, Johns Hopkins University (1999-)
Fulbright 1956-58
AAS Helen B. Warner Prize 1966
NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement 1971
NASA Distinguished Public Service Award 1972
AAPT Richtmyer Memorial Award 1975
Elliott Cresson Gold Medal of the Franklin Institute 1980
NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal 1980
Bruce Medal 1981
Dannie Heineman Prize for Mathematical Physics 1981
NYAS Cressy Morrison Award 1982
Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal 1982 (with Harrie Massey)
Wolf Prize in Physics 1987 (with Herbert Friedman and Bruno Rossi)
ICRA Marcel Grossmann Award 2000
National Medal of Science 2003
Nobel Prize for Physics 2002 (with Raymond Davis, Jr. and Masatoshi Koshiba)
GAS Karl Schwarzschild Medal 2004
Associated Universities, Inc. President (1999-2004)
NASA Principal Investigator, Uhuru, Skylab, & Einstein projects (1960-81)
American Science & Engineering X-ray Astronomer (1959-73)
Member of the Board of American Science & Engineering (1966-73)
Accademia dei Lincei
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Astronomical Society
American Philosophical Society
American Physical Society
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Cosmos Club
Federation of American Scientists Board of Sponsors
Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science External Member
National Academy of Sciences
Royal Astronomical Society Foreign Member
Italian Ancestry
Naturalized US Citizen 1967
Asteroid Namesake 3371 Giacconi
Author of books:
X-Ray Astronomy (1974, astrophysics)
The X-Ray Universe (1985, astrophysics)
Secrets of the Hoary Deep: A Personal History of Modern Astronomy (2008, memoir)
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