John J. Kavelaars

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J-John Kavelaars, better known as JJ Kavelaars, is a Canadian astronomer who was part of a team that discovered several moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. He is also a discoverer of minor planets and an investigator on the extended New Horizons mission, having aided in the discovery of 486958 Arrokoth.

Biography

Kavelaars is a graduate of the Glencoe District High School in Glencoe, Ontario, the University of Guelph, and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He is currently an astronomer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C.
In the course of his work, he has been responsible for the discovery of eleven satellites of Saturn, eight of Uranus, and four of Neptune, and a hundred or so minor planets. Kavelaars is the Coordinator of the Canada–France Ecliptic Plane Survey which is part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey "CFHTLS": a project dedicated to the discovery and tracking of objects in the outer Solar System.

Family

He is the brother of Canadian actress Ingrid Kavelaars and Canadian fencing athlete Monique Kavelaars.

Honors

The asteroid 154660 Kavelaars was named in his honor on 1 June 2007 by his colleague David D. Balam.
In 2022 Kavelaars was awarded the Canadian Astronomical Society Dunlap Award for Innovation in Astronomical Instrumentation and Software. This award recognized Kavelaars' contributions to the development and leadership of the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre, in particular the development of cloud-based astronomical data analysis using the CANFAR Science Platform.
In 2022 Kavelaars was awarded the National Research Council Dan Wayner award for outstanding achievement in Science and Technology. This award was presented in recognition of Kavelaars' co-discovery of 486958 Arrokoth and contributions to the NASA's New Horizons encounter with that object.