Norman F. Ness

Norman Frederick Ness (April 15, 1933 – December 4, 2023) was an American geophysicist.

Biography Ness was born 15 April 1933 in Springfield, Massachusetts and grew up in Meriden, Connecticut. He received a BSc (1955) and a PhD (1959) in geophysics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined NASA Goddard center in 1960, and soon became the principal investigator of the magnetometer experiments on the Interplanetary Monitoring Platform satellites. He directed the Explorer 35 Moon mission, and became involved into planetary science.

From 1966 to 1986 he was director of the Laboratory of Extraterrestrial Physics at the NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. In 1987, he became director of the Bartol Research Institute at the University of Delaware. He retired in 2005.

Ness died in Venice, Florida, on December 4, 2023, at the age of 90.

Personal life Ness was married twice and had a son and a daughter. He was a sailor and a coach for the US Naval Academy Sailing Squadron in Annapolis. 1993 US National Space Club Science Award

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Selected publications