Fred Gillett (astronomer)
Frederick Carl Gillett (February 7, 1937 – April 22, 2001) was an American astronomer who was a pioneer of infrared astronomy. He was based successively at the University of California, San Diego, Kitt Peak National Observatory, and the International Gemini Observatory. His discoveries include the Vega phenomenon and the first unidentified infrared emission bands. Biography Gillett was born on February 7, 1937, in Minot, North Dakota. He studied at the University of Minnesota, receiving a bachelor of science in physics in 1960. In 1960 he also married Marian Ruth DeGriselles, a registered nurse. As a graduate student at the university he took an interest in the new field of infrared astronomy, under the guidance of his doctoral advisor Edward P. Ney. Gillett travelled to Tucson, Arizona to use Frank Low's new infrared detector, a bolometer. With Low, he designed and built the first spectrometer that could measure infrared radiation with wavelengths of 8–14μm. As part of his thesis Gillett used an infrared photometer attached to a high-altitude balloon to observe the zodiacal cloud. He was awarded a Ph.D. in physics in 1966, one of the first doctorates awarded for infrared astronomy. After graduating he worked at the University of California,