John E. Geake
John Edward Geake was a British astronomer, noted as a lunar scientist and scientific instrument designer.
Career
John Edward Geake was born on 22 April 1925 in Manchester, England. His postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology related to the study of astronomical spectra using a photoelectric photometer. His work parallelled that of W. Albert Hiltner's team in the United States; although at the time neither knew of the other's work, and their methods were different. This research, which was long before the days of space exploration, led to laboratory measurement of luminescence from meteorite samples, which could be compared with lunar luminescence in an attempt to determine the composition of the lunar surface. His expertise was recognised by both the American and the Soviet space agencies, both of whom allocated to him lunar samples for study.He was a NASA principal investigator, and an editor of Lunar Science Conference Proceedings. One of his focuses was in trying to gain information from the polarization of light scattered from the surfaces of solid bodies in the Solar System. This involved comparison of laboratory measurements on samples of known characteristics against astronomical observations. This led to analysis of data collected by the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft, targeted at Jupiter and Saturn. He became well known for this work, which was continued after his death by Tom Gehrels of the University of Arizona; where Geake had held the post of adjunct professor. Geake was also a fellow at the Royal Astronomical Society, and a member of the International Astronomical Union.