Dr. Kenneth L. Franklin, Astronomer Emeritus and Former Chariman, American Museum-Hayden Planetarium

Dr. Franklin obtained a Ph.D. degree in Astronomy in 1953 at the University of California, Berkeley. He was a Research Fellow in Radio Astronomy at the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1954-1956. While there, staff member B. F. Burke and he discovered the radio emissions from the planet Jupiter. He joined the staff of the American Museum-Hayden Planetarium in 1956 in the rank of Assistant Astronomer. He was chairman of the Hayden Planetarium and Department of Astronomy of the American Museum of Natural History, 1972-1974. From 1956 to the time of his retirement at the end of 1984 as Astronomer, his duties included presenting (and often writing) innumerable sky shows in the sky theater, teaching popular and technical courses in astronomy several times each year, and answering questions from the public. He was frequently consulted by local industries engaged in the space program, and by the news media and publishers. As chief scientist of the Hayden Planetarium for a record 28 years, he was often interviewed on local and national radio and television. During the first moon landing in 1969, Dr. Franklin was an on-camera astronomy expert for the NBC coverage of the event, appearing with the late Frank McGee.

Dr. Franklin has taught at several east coast universities and colleges, including New York University, City University of New York, and Cooper Union. He also lectured at the Columbia School of Journalism, and West Point Military Academy. For three and a half years, he was an Adjunct Professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, teaching a two-semester popular survey course in astronomy.

From 1973 to 1979, he was the Public Affairs Officer of the American Astronomical Society. For two decades, Dr. Franklin served in the Society's Harlow Shapley Visiting Lecturer Program, visiting one or two colleges each year. In 1973 and 1980, he led tours to Africa to observe total solar eclipses. He was also a leader of an American Museum of Natural History eclipse tour to Hawaii in 1991.

Dr. Franklin was the Astronomy Editor of the World Almanac,1970 to 1995, and from 1980 to 1992 provided all of the astronomical calculations for the Farmers Almanac, and others, through his association with the Hart Wright Co., Lewiston, Maine. He contributed daily almanac information to the New York Times from 1975 to 1997. As a columnist from 1983 to 1997, he wrote the weekly SKYWATCH feature that appeared in the New York edition of the Sunday NY Times.

He has had articles published in the Astrophysical Journal, the Astronomical Journal, Journal of Geophysical Research, American Scientist, Scientific American, Natural History Magazine, Science Digest, and the New York Times Magazine. Asteroid #2845 has been named FRANKLINKEN.

Since his retirement, he has been an astronomy lecturer in several national parks and for Lindblad Travel, Society Expeditions, American Hawaii Cruises (Tahiti), and for the Discovery Tours program of the American Museum of Natural History. Further information may be obtained from Who's Who in America. (see below)

Who's Who in American