User:Wwheaton

Re 'WilWheaton'
I am not him !! But my real name is really William Wheaton. Sorry for the confusion, but I have priority, having got my name in 1942.

History
I have especially strong interests in physics, and in space exploration and associated technology.

I got my PhD at UCSD in 1976. After UCSD, I took a postdoc at MIT until 1979. Then I went to JPL to work on cosmic gamma-ray astronomy for 17 years. Then after leaving JPL in 1996, I worked at IPAC on the Caltech campus, on infra-red astronomy, for 15 more.

I finally retired from IPAC in 2010, due to worsening of an old skeletal disability. The latter explains my absence from Wikipedia for the past 10 years. I apologize for leaving here cold turkey, but my disability and sudden change in status made it necessary. I always hope to get back, but based on the past decade, I will be lucky to be able to find the time.

I have a personal web page at

http://www.wwheaton.com/waw,

sadly neglected and out of date, which I hope to revitalize someday...

Wikipedia interests
Some Wiki articles I have contributed to include


 * Bevatron
 * Particle accelerator
 * Viking (rocket)

The works of Arthur C. Clarke, especially
 * Childhood's End
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
 * Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey


 * Orbit
 * Wolf-Rayet star
 * Rocket engine
 * Space exploration
 * HEAO Program
 * HEAO 3
 * GRO J1655-40
 * Black hole
 * Large Hadron Collider
 * Safety of the Large Hadron Collider
 * Eddington Luminosity
 * L-shell
 * Space colonization
 * Milton W. Rosen
 * Oreste Piccioni
 * Wendell H. Furry

Pages I watch and likely have an interest in are (as of 11/18/2008):


 * 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel)
 * 2001 A Space Odyssey
 * 2MASS
 * 4U 1700-37
 * Alex (parrot)
 * Altair (spacecraft)
 * Apollo program
 * Arches Cluster
 * Ares I
 * Ares V
 * Ariane 5
 * Arthur C. Clarke
 * Astronomical Netherlands Satellite
 * Atomic number
 * Balint Karosi
 * Bell's theorem
 * Benny Peiser
 * Bevatron
 * Black hole
 * CCNet (network)
 * Celestial mechanics
 * Childhood's End
 * Cl* 1806-20
 * Constellation program
 * Cosmic infrared background
 * Counterfactual definiteness
 * Cygnus X-1
 * Cygnus X-3
 * Dirac large numbers hypothesis
 * E-Prime
 * Earth Departure Stage
 * Eddington luminosity
 * Einstein Observatory
 * Exploration Systems Architecture Study
 * FSC15307+3253
 * Faster-than-light
 * Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
 * Flyby anomaly
 * GRO J1655-40
 * GRS 1124-683
 * GRS 1915+105
 * GX 339-4
 * Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
 * Gamma-ray astronomy
 * Gamma (satellite)
 * Gamma ray spectrometer
 * General relativity
 * Granat
 * Gravastar
 * Gravity Probe B
 * HEAO Program
 * HEASARC
 * Hadron
 * Hawking radiation
 * Henry Kolm
 * Henry Masauko Blasius Chipembere
 * High Energy Astronomy Observatory
 * High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1
 * High Energy Astronomy Observatory 3
 * High Energy Astrophysics Observatory
 * Hubble Space Telescope
 * IRAS
 * Infrared Space Observatory
 * Infrared astronomy
 * International Space Station
 * Interplanetary Flight: an introduction to astronautics
 * Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey
 * Interstellar travel
 * Interstellar travel and the Wait Calculation
 * Introduction to general relativity
 * Introduction to special relativity
 * Jet Propulsion Laboratory Developmental Ephemeris
 * L-shell
 * LBV 1806-20
 * Large Hadron Collider
 * Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
 * Life
 * Liquid rocket
 * List of X-ray pulsars
 * List of basic space exploration topics
 * List of most luminous stars
 * List of space telescopes
 * Local hidden variable theory
 * Lunar space elevator
 * Many-worlds interpretation
 * Matter
 * Metric expansion of space
 * Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets
 * Minkowski diagram
 * Near-Earth asteroid
 * Near-Earth object
 * Opacity (optics)
 * Orbit
 * Orbital mechanics
 * Oreste Piccioni
 * Orion (spacecraft)
 * Orion abort modes
 * PSR J0737-3039
 * Particle accelerator
 * Philosophical realism
 * Phoenix (spacecraft)
 * Photometry (astronomy)
 * Photon
 * Pioneer anomaly
 * Potentially hazardous asteroid
 * Principle of locality
 * Project Constellation
 * Project Vanguard
 * Quantum field theory
 * Quark
 * Quasar
 * Quintuplet cluster
 * Resveratrol
 * Rietdijk-Putnam argument
 * Rocket engine
 * SGR 1806-20
 * Safety of particle collisions at the Large Hadron Collider
 * Safety of the Large Hadron Collider
 * Saturn (rocket family)
 * Shape of the Universe
 * Solar power satellite
 * Space Shuttle program
 * Space colonization
 * Space debris
 * Space elevator
 * Space elevator economics
 * Space exploration
 * Space solar power
 * Special relativity
 * Speed of gravity
 * Spitzer Space Telescope
 * Stellar black hole
 * Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence
 * Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
 * Strong
 * Strong (relative detectability)
 * Strong (source)
 * Supermassive black hole
 * Topic outline of space exploration
 * Topical outline of space exploration
 * Uhuru (satellite)
 * Unruh effect
 * Van Allen radiation belt
 * Vanguard (rocket)
 * Vanguard rocket
 * Vela X-1
 * Viking (rocket)
 * Viking rocket
 * WR 102ka
 * Wendell H. Furry
 * White hole
 * Wolf-Rayet star
 * Wormhole
 * X-ray astronomy
 * X-ray binary
 * X-ray pulsar
 * XTE J1650-500

Please understand that I know essentially nothing about many (or most!) of these.