William I. McLaughlin (born 1935) is a retired

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

space scientist The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to space science: Space science encompasses all of the scientific disciplines that involve space exploration and study natural phenomena and physical bodies In common usage ...

. After being awarded his PhD in mathematics at the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

in 1968 (with a thesis on

celestial mechanics Celestial mechanics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the motions of objects in outer space. Historically, celestial mechanics applies principles of physics (classical mechanics) to astronomical objects, such as stars and planets, to ...

), he worked at Bellcomm, Inc. in Washington D.C. on the Apollo lunar-landing program. In 1971 he joined the

Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States. Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...

, where he remained until his retirement in 1999. He participated in a number of projects, including

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

, SEASAT, and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). He served as the JPL deputy directory of astrophysics, the manager of the

Voyager 2 ''Voyager 2'' is a space probe launched by NASA on August 20, 1977, to study the outer planets and interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. As a part of the Voyager program, it was launched 16 days before its twin, ''Voyager 1'', on a ...

flight engineering office during the spacecraft's encounter with

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (mythology), Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars (mythology), Mars), grandfather ...

, and manager of the Mission Profiling and Sequencing Section. In 1977 he suggested that widely observable celestial events such as

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

explosions may be used by hypothetical extraterrestrial intelligences for scheduling the transmission of signals. This would allow receivers in other stellar systems to estimate when the signals would arrive. To test this concept, during a six-month period in 1988, the star

Epsilon Eridani Epsilon Eridani ( Latinized from ε Eridani), formally named Ran, is a star in the southern constellation of Eridanus, at a declination of 9.46° south of the celestial equator. This allows it to be visible from most of Earth's surface ...

was observed using a 40-foot

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency ...

at the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radio a ...

in Green Bank, West Virginia, with

Nova Cygni 1975 __NOTOC__ V1500 Cygni or Nova Cygni 1975 was a bright nova occurring in 1975 in the constellation Cygnus. It had the second highest intrinsic brightness of any nova of the 20th century, exceeded only by CP Puppis in 1942. V1500 Cygni ...

being used as the timer. However, no anomalous radio signals were observed. This does not, of course, preclude the idea from being confirmed at a later date. He received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1984 for his work on the IRAS and the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal for his work on the Voyager encounter with Uranus. Asteroid 4838 Billmclaughlin is named after him.

References

Living people 1935 births Space scientists {{US-scientist-stub