James R. Houck, Cornell professor of astronomy, has been named the Kenneth A. Wallace Professor in Astronomy.

Houck, who has been on the Cornell faculty since 1969, earned his Ph.D. here in 1967. He is an expert in developing optical and infrared instrumentation and techniques for observing astronomical sources.

Houck is principal investigator for the infrared spectrograph on NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility, which is scheduled for launch early in the new century. He is a team member of the Wide-Field Infrared Explorer, and is active in national science policy and funding issues.

Also, Houck is principally responsible for Cornell having 25 percent of the observing time at the 200-inch Hale Telescope atop Mount Palomar in California. In exchange, Cornell researchers, led by Houck, design new instruments to be used at the facility. The first such instrument, called SpectroCam, a combination thermal infrared camera and spectrograph, was delivered to Mount Palomar two years ago.

Houck also is an award-winning teacher, having earned the Clark Award for Distinguished Teaching at Cornell. Most recently, he helped develop a senior-level course on experimental techniques in astronomy.

"It was Jim's leadership that brought us into optical astronomy in a big way," Yervant Terzian, chairman of the astronomy department, said at a March 25 reception to announce the endowed professorship. President Hunter Rawlings and Philip Lewis, acting dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, also spoke at the reception.

The professorship is named for Kenneth A. Wallace, a 1960 Cornell graduate who studied philosophy. Now living in Phoenix, he has come to know the department through Friends of Astronomy, a group interested in supporting the department and learning about the field.

"There is an illiteracy in science in this country that scares me," Wallace said at the ceremony. "I would like to think that by endowing a chair, I am endowing a future to keep us on the edge of technology."