Charles A. Barth, Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado, died on October 14th 2014. Charles grew up in Philadelphia where he attended Central High School. He received his B.S. in chemistry at Lehigh University. After serving in the Air Force, he earned his Ph.D. from UCLA. From 1958 to 1959 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bonn, Germany, followed by six years working at the CalTech/NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From 1965 to 1992 he was the Director of the University of Colorado’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and until 2002 a professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences. He became Professor Emeritus in 2002.
Between 1962 and 2002, Charles was active on numerous experiments studying the Earth and other planets, including Mariners 5, 6, 7, and 9, OGO-2, 4, 5, and 6, Atmosphere Explorer-C and D, the Solar Mesosphere Explorer, the Student Nitric Oxide Experiment, and instruments on Apollo 17, Pioneer Venus, Galileo, and Cassini. As a professor, he especially valued giving undergraduate students their first taste of space and planetary science by allowing them to design, build and operate spacecraft. He mentored and inspired many undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientists, producing a lasting legacy of friends, colleagues, and outstanding scientists. He will be missed greatly.
Transmitted by A. Hendrix