Our History

James S. McDonnell at his desk
James S. McDonnell
Images of McDonnell are courtesy of WashU Archives.

The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences was formally established in November 1974 through a munificent endowment by James S. McDonnell (1899-1980) and the McDonnell Foundation. 

It started with eight professorships, several fellowships, and research grants. It was further strengthened through another major contribution in 1987 from the Danforth Foundation. Today, along with these professorships - four in the Physics Department and four in the Department of Earth, Environmental, & Planetary Sciences - the Center has grown into a consortium of more than one hundred members.

WashU Record - November 27, 1974

Robert M. Walker

Director, 1975-1999

The inaugural director of the McDonnell Center was the late Robert M. Walker. He was the McDonnell Professor of Physics and served as Director of the McDonnell Center from its inception until 1999. Professor Walker worked on the frontiers of space research for more than four decades. He was best known for fundamental investigations of radiation effects in metals, the discovery of etched track detectors, and the application of these detectors to a variety of scientific and practical problems including the development of Nuclepore filters, the fission-track dating method, the discovery of extremely heavy cosmic rays, and the record of energetic particles in space as recorded in extraterrestrial materials. He also conducted research in thermoluminescence and its application to art authentication and archaeological dating. His research efforts later in his career included the laboratory study of extraterrestrial dust particles collected in the upper atmosphere and the location and identification of preserved interstellar dust in primitive meteorites.

Roger J. Phillips

Director, 1999-2007

Roger Phillips

Roger J. Phillips succeeded Robert M. Walker as Center Director in 1999 and served until 2007.  Professor Phillips, who earned his PhD in 1968 from the University of California, Berkeley, worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and then took over as director of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) in 1979. He later took a faculty position at Southern Methodist University, and in 1992 came to Washington University. In 2008, he retired from Washington University and moved to Colorado where he was affiliated with the Southwest Research Institute and continued his research. He died on November 19, 2020.
 

Professor Phillips was known for his work on the geophysical characteristics and interior structure of solid planets, beginning with the interior structure of the Moon and later expanding his research to Venus, Mars, and Mercury. He was involved in numerous exploration missions including the Apollo Lunar Sounder Experiment, Apollo 17; the Magellan mission to Venus; the Mars Global Surveyor mission; the Shallow Radar (SHARAD) experiment on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter; the MESSENGER mission to Mercury; and the GRAIL mission to the Moon.

Comments from Director Phillips about the space sciences:

“This generation's initial probing beyond our planet with unmanned spacecraft and human explorers is a major turning point in history, fundamentally changing the boundary conditions of human existence. We have taken only the first small steps; the exploration of space will continue as long as humanity exists. The first American in space and the first American in Earth orbit made their flights in spacecraft designed and built in St. Louis. The McDonnell Center is privileged to help carry on this tradition of space exploration. We look forward to the future with enthusiasm and immense curiosity.”

Ramanath Cowsik

Director, 2007-2019

Ramanath Cowsik became the third director, serving from 2007-2019. Professor Cowsik, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Space Sciences, earned his PhD from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay University. He was a Distinguished Professor at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and a Distinguished Professor and Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics before joining the Department of Physics at Washington University in 2002. 
 

Professor Cowsik's scientific contributions span over several decades and are in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology and non-accelerator particle physics. He is interested in several problems in high energy astrophysics, dark matter, and cosmology. Over the course of his career, he established the highest observatory in the world in Hanle, Ladakh, in the Himalayas, at an altitude of 15,000 ft, for astronomy in the optical and infrared wavelength bands. He has contributed significantly to the understanding of highly energetic phenomena in astrophysics such as cosmic rays, pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma-ray bursts, active-galactic nuclei and other such sources powered by accretion flows. He has studied both the diffuse non-thermal radiations that permeate all space and also the emission of such radiations from discrete astronomical sources. The 'leaky-box' and the 'nested-leaky box' models invented by him are extensively used to interpret the observations of cosmic rays.

Cowsik was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2004 and was awarded the O’ Ceallaigh Medal of International Union of Pure and Applied Physics in 2013. In addition, he was awarded several medals before arriving at WashU, including the President's Medal, the 4th Highest Civilian Award in India, and was elected to the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (Trieste, Italy).

Milestones

WUSTL Shield, decorative

Barndoor I launched from Palestine, Texas

The WashU cosmic ray group, including Robert Walker, Michael Friedlander, and Joseph Klarmann, started a project to search for heavy particulates in the primary cosmic radiation. They launched a 10-square-meter passive detector using nuclear emulsions and plastics to detect rare cosmic-ray nuclei heavier than iron on a series of large stratospheric balloons.

Apollo 11 samples are allocated to WashU for study

Robert Walker and his research team received one of the first allocations of lunar samples for analysis. They cosmic ray interactions and radiation history of the lunar samples mainly using nuclear particle tracks, which were revealed by techniques invented by Walker.

McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences Established

The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences was founded in 1974 through a munificent endowment from Mr. James S. McDonnell of the McDonnell Aerospace Foundation, under the stewardship of William H. Danforth, Chancellor, and Robert M. Walker, McDonnell Professor of Physics, who served as its Director until 1999 and guided it to academic excellence.

Viking I Lander is the first spacecraft to land on Mars

Raymond Arvidson, an MCSS fellow, played a key role on the flight imaging team that captured the first close-up views of the surface of the Red Planet.

Launch of an Earth-Orbiting High Energy Astronomy Observatory.

One of the instruments onboard is the Heavy Nuclei Experiment led by Martin Israel, along with colleagues at Caltech and the University of Minnesota.

Ion Microprobe

Robert M. Walker and members of his laboratory revolutionize the study of space materials with the help of an ion microprobe which measures isotopes in microscopic samples from meteorites and the Moon. They identified and characterized stardust in meteorites, opening a window into the evolution of stars that predate the Sun and origin of materials of our solar system.

Pioneers in Astrophysics Study Stardust

Robert Walker’s Laboratory of Space Physics pioneers a new field of laboratory astrophysics, based on the revolutionary SIMS ion probe, employed to analyze presolar grains (literally stardust) isolated from meteorites. (SIMS = Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry)

NASA establishes its Planetary Data System

WashU, under the direction of Professor Ray Arvidson, is placed in charge of the Geosciences Node, making the university a repository of data from Mars, the Moon, and other solid bodies. Now directed by Associate Professor Paul Byrne, the Geosciences Node remains an invaluable resource for planetary researchers worldwide.

The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer is launched

The Cosmic Ray Isotope Spectrometer is launched aboard the NASA Advanced Composition Explorer satellite. Robert Binns, Martin Israel, and Joseph Klarmann were co-investigators along with scientists from other institutions. This instrument continues to make key measurements relevant to the origin of cosmic rays.

TIGER (Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder) a high-altitude, balloon-borne instrument designed to detect the elemental abundances of cosmic rays

The first successful TIGER balloon flight launched from Fort Sumner, NM in September 1997. It was launched again from McMurdo Station, Antarctica in December 2001 and December 2003. W. Robert Binns was the principal investigator.

Roger J. Phillips became new director of the Center

First Ever NanoSIMS Installed at WashU

Our NanoSIMS 50 was designed specifically to advance presolar grain research. This instrument studied the origin and evolution of the Solar System through analyses of extraterrestrial materials (rocks and dust from asteroids and comets, circumstellar and interstellar grains, and samples of the solar wind).

Ray Arvidson was the deputy principal investigator for the Mars exploration rovers

Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. Opportunity continued communicating for 15 years.

VERITAS Constructed

In January 2007, Washington University professor Jim Buckley and a team of collaborators finalized the construction of VERITAS, a high-energy gamma ray observatory in Arizona. More than 20 years later, the observatory continues to advance our understanding of the universe, including the forces around black holes and the existence of dark matter.

Ramanath Cowsik succeeded Phillips as Director of the Center

SuperTIGER

The three successful TIGER missions were followed by SuperTIGER (Super Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder). This balloon-borne instrument designed to detect the elemental abundance of cosmic rays, launched from McMurdo Station for what would be a record-breaking 55-day flight over Antarctica. The 2012 flight was led by W. Robert Binns. Brian Rauch led the SuperTIGER-II missions in 2019 and 2020, furthering our knowledge of the origins of cosmic rays and their origins outside of our solar system.

New Horizons encounter with Pluto

Launched in 2006, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft completes a fly-by of Pluto and its system of satellites, marking the first close-up exploration of the dwarf planet. Professor William McKinnon was co-investigator and one of the original scientists to conceive the mission.

Brad Jolliff becomes fourth Director

SupterTIGER II

SuperTIGER-II launched into the upper atmosphere on December 19, 2019, landing 32 days later. Assistant Research Professor Brian Rauch was the PI, working closely with Professors Binns and Israel. Professor Rauch led the team that returned to Antarctica to fetch the SuperTIGER payload from where it landed and was sequestered, in part due to the COVID pandemic, and nearly buried in snow for several years.

Samples from Asteroid Ryugu

WashU scientists, including Alex Meshik, Olga Pravdivtseva, and Sachiko Amari, receive samples from the asteroid Ryugu. Using noble gas mass spectrometry, they gain unprecedented insights into the makeup of an asteroid that likely formed in the outer reaches of our solar system.

The Rover Perseverance lands on Mars

WashU researchers are closely involved with the collection, storage, and analysis of data generated during the mission. In 2023, NASA names associate professors Ryan Ogliore and Kun Wang to a planning team with the critical task of finding a way to get samples from the rover back to Earth.

XL-Calibur telescope launched to study black holes

Scientists from WashU launched a balloon-borne telescope, XL-Calibur, to unlock the secrets of astrophysical black holes and neutron stars, some of the most extreme objects in the universe. The device was launched from the Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange Space Center, situated north of the Arctic Circle near Kiruna, Sweden. Henric Krawczynski is the principal investigator.

Europa Clipper launched

NASA’s Europa Clipper launches to explore an icy ocean moon of Jupiter that could be the most promising spot in the solar system for life beyond Earth. William B. McKinnon is a member of the mission’s science team and played a pivotal role in planning the scientific observations that will be made of the moon and its ocean, insights critical for exploring the likelihood of life beneath the ice.