F. Richard Stephenson (born Francis Richard Stephenson, 26 April 1941) is an

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Professor at the University of Durham, in the Physics department and the East Asian Studies department. His research concentrates on historical aspects of astronomy, in particular analyzing ancient astronomical records to reconstruct the history of

Earth's rotation Earth's rotation or Earth's spin is the rotation of planet Earth around its own Rotation around a fixed axis, axis, as well as changes in the orientation (geometry), orientation of the rotation axis in space. Earth rotates eastward, in retrograd ...

. He has an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

named after him: 10979 Fristephenson.

Bibliography

* & F. Richard Stephenson, ''The Historical supernovae'', Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1977, 233 pages, * F. Richard Stephenson & David H. Clark, ''Applications of Early Astronomical Records'', Oxford University Press, 1979, 124 pages, *

Hermann Hunger Hermann Hunger (born 1942), an Austrian Assyriologist, professor emeritus of Assyriology at the University of Vienna, from which he retired in 2007. He has been recognized for his work on Babylonian astronomy and celestial omens. Biography Her ...

, Christopher B. F. Walker, Richard Stephenson & Kevin K. C. Yau, ''Halley's Comet in History'', British Museum Press, 1985, 64 pages, * F. Richard Stephenson, ''Supplement to the Tuckerman Tables'', American Philosophical Society, 1986, 564 pages, * F. Richard Stephenson & M. A. Houlden, ''Atlas of historical eclipse maps. East Asia 1500 BC-AD 1900'', Cambridge University Press, 1986, * F. Richard Stephenson, "The identification of early returns of comet Halley from ancient astronomical records", p. 203 - 214 in ''Comet Halley. Investigations, results, interpretations, Vol. 2'',

Prentice Hall Prentice Hall was an American major educational publisher owned by Savvas Learning Company. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6–12 and higher-education market, and distributes its technical titles through the Safari B ...

, 1990 * F. Richard Stephenson, ''Astronomical Observations from the Ancient Orient'',

, 1990, 350 pages, * F. Richard Stephenson, ''Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation'', Cambridge University Press, 1997, 573 pages, * F. Richard Stephenson & David A. Green, ''Historical supernovae and their remnants'', Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2002, 252 p.,

External links

Profile
from the Durham University Department of Physics.
Research abstract
from the Durham University East Asian Studies Department.
2014 Doggett Prize Winner - F. Richard Stephenson

Publications by F. R. Stephenson
in the Astrophysics Data System 20th-century British astronomers Academics of Durham University Living people 1941 births {{UK-astronomer-stub