Dr. Roger Broucke, professor emeritus of aerospace engineering and engineering dynamics at The University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the 2003 Dirk Brouwer award from the American Astronautical Society. He was awarded “for significant contributions in the theory of dynamical systems and space flight mechanics.”
Dr. Broucke received his M.S. in mathematics in 1957 in Belgium under Prof. George Lemaitre, inventor of the Big Bang theory. He also received his Ph.D. in mathematics in Belgium in 1963. As he was finishing his dissertation, he wrote a letter to Dirk Brouwer, a friend and director of the Yale Observatory, to ask his opinion about moving to the United States. Dr. Brouwer recommended NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a starting place to work, but also offered Dr. Broucke a postdoctoral position. Dr. Broucke decided to work at the Jet Propulsion Lab, and remained there 13 years before joining the UT-Austin faculty in 1976. His research focuses on celestial mechanics, the same field in which Dirk Brouwer specialized.
Dr. Broucke will receive his award at the next American Astronautical Society-American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Astrodymanics Specialist conference in Puerto Rico in February 2003, where he will also give the one-hour plenary lecture.
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