STS-75 press kit

Edited by Richard W. Orloff, 01/2001/Page 33
BIOGRAPHICAL DATA
Jeffrey A. Hoffman (Ph.D.)
NASA Astronaut
BIRTHPLACE AND DATE: Born November 2, 1944, in Brooklyn, New York, but considers Scarsdale,
New York, to be his hometown. His parents, Dr. and Mrs. Burton P. Hoffman, are residents of White
Plains, New York.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Scarsdale High School, Scarsdale, New York, in 1962; received a bachelor
of arts degree in astronomy (graduated summa cum laude) from Amherst College in 1966, a doctor of
philosophy in astrophysics from Harvard University in 1971, and a masters degree in materials science
from Rice University in 1988.
MARITAL STATUS: Married to the former Barbara Catherine Attridge of Greenwich, London, England.
Her father, Mr. Frederick J. C. Attridge, resides in Kidbrooke, London, England.
CHILDREN: Samuel L., May 3, 1975; Orin P. F., April 30, 1979.
SPECIAL HONORS: Awarded the Amherst College 1963 Porter Prize in Astronomy, 1964 Second
Walker Prize in Mathematics, 1965 John Summer Runnells Scholarship Prize, and 1966 Stanley V. and
Charles B. Travis Prize and Woods Prize for Scholarship. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1965 and Sigma Xi
in 1966. Also received a Woodrow Wilson Foundation Pre- Doctoral Fellowship, 1966-67; a National
Science Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, 1966-71; a National Academy of Sciences Post-Doctoral
Visiting Fellowship, 1971-72; a Harvard University Sheldon International Fellowship, 1972-73; and a
NATO Post-Doctoral Fellowship, 1973-74. Dr. Hoffman was awarded NASA Space Flight Medals in
1985, 1991, 1992 and 1994, NASA Exceptional Service Medals in 1988 and 1992, and the NASA
Distinguished Service Medal in 1994.
EXPERIENCE: Dr. Hoffman's original research interests were in high-energy astrophysics, specifically
cosmic gamma ray and x-ray astronomy. His doctoral work at Harvard was the design, construction,
testing, and flight of a balloon-borne, low-energy, gamma ray telescope.
From 1972 to 1975, during 3 years of post-doctoral work at Leicester University, he worked on three
rocket payloads, two for the observation of lunar occultations of x- ray sources and one for an observation
of the Crab Nebula with a solid state detector and concentrating x-ray mirror. He designed and supervised
the construction and testing of the lunar occultation payloads and designed test equipment for use in an x-
ray beam facility which he used to measure the scattering and reflectivity properties of the concentrating
mirror. During his last year at Leicester, he was project scientist for the medium-energy x-ray experiment
on the European Space Agency's EXOSAT satellite and played a leading role in the proposal and design
studies for this project.
He worked in the Center for Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from
1975 to 1978 as project scientist in charge of the orbiting HEAO-1 A4 hard x-ray and gamma ray
experiment, launched in August 1977. His involvement included pre-launch design of the data analysis
system, supervising its operation post-launch, and directing the MIT team undertaking the scientific
analysis of flight data being returned. He was also involved extensively in analysis of x-ray data from the
SAS-3 satellite being operated by MIT, performing research on the study of x-ray bursts. Dr. Hoffman has
authored or co-authored more than 20 papers on this subject since bursts were first discovered in 1976.
NASA EXPERIENCE: Selected by NASA in January 1978, Dr. Hoffman became an astronaut in August
1979. During preparations for the Shuttle Orbital Flight Tests, Dr. Hoffman worked in the Flight
Simulation Laboratory at Downey, California, testing guidance, navigation and flight control systems. He
has worked with the orbital maneuvering and reaction control systems, with Shuttle navigation, with crew