Joseph A. Burns, Ph.D. ’66, emeritus professor of engineering and astronomy, and a former vice provost and dean of the Cornell faculty, died Feb. 26 in Ithaca. He was 83.

A planetary scientist specializing in celestial mechanics, Burns in 1998 helped discover two moons of Uranus and, more recently, contributed to discoveries about Saturn’s rings as a member of the imaging team for NASA’s Cassini mission, one of several space agency science missions he supported. Appreciating not only the rings’ structure and composition, but also their beauty, he helped produce an art exhibition of Cassini images that visited prominent museums, with collaborators including his wife of 51 years, Judith Klein Burns, M.F.A. ’67, who died in 2018.

Credit: Cornell University File Photo

Burns served nearly a half-century on the faculty, from 1966, when he completed his doctoral degree in Ithaca, until his retirement in 2015. An award-winning teacher, researcher and journal editor, Burns also took on senior administrative roles, serving as vice provost for physical sciences and engineering from 2003 to ’07, and as the faculty’s elected dean from 2012 to ’15. Colleagues appreciated his collegial manner and informal style – he favored shorts and sandals – combined with his commitment to seeing Cornell thrive into the 21st century.

“Joe was an exemplary Cornell citizen, achieving excellence in his field, mentoring new scholars and advancing our understanding of the solar system, all while working tirelessly and graciously in leadership to advance the mission of the university he loved,” Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff said. “Joe was exceptionally well-liked and respected across campus and around the world, and cared about his family above all. He will be deeply missed.”

As a researcher, teacher and devoted Cornellian, Burns “won the trifecta” of accomplishments, said longtime friend Glenn Altschuler, the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies Emeritus in the College of Arts and Sciences. His outgoing personality and multidisciplinary interests served him well as dean of faculty, Altschuler said.

“Joe was unfailingly decent and gracious, and extremely conscientious,” Altschuler said. “He was not only respected, but respectful. You could disagree with him in that capacity, but he was very hard not to like.”

Joseph Arthur Burns was born on March 22, 1941, in Queens, New York, and grew up in Cold Spring, on the Hudson River north of New York City. In 1962, he earned a bachelor’s degree in naval architecture and marine engineering at the Webb Institute on Long Island. Coming of age at the height of the space race, Burns decided to redirect his physics, engineering and applied math skills from shipbuilding to the burgeoning field of celestial mechanics.

Upon earning his Ph.D., Burns conducted postdoctoral research at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and joined the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, which in 2009 became part of the Department Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. He eventually held joint appointments as the Irving Porter Church Professor of Engineering in Cornell Engineering and professor of astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, teaching and training students interested in the movements of both spacecraft and natural bodies in the solar system.

If celestial mechanics had a reputation for being dry, with lengthy mathematical proofs the preferred mode of communication, that wasn’t true of Burns, said Philip Nicholson, professor of astronomy (A&S), a longtime colleague and Cassini collaborator.

“Joe understood that stuff, but he approached things in a much more physical way,” Nicholson said. “He was not content unless he had a nice, physical explanation that he could sketch as a diagram on a blackboard of why a particular phenomenon happens.”

Burns’ approach and scholarship earned him invitations to serve on NASA and National Research Council advisory panels, and on the imaging teams for multiple planetary exploration missions – in addition to Cassini, the Galileo mission studying Jupiter and the European Space Agency-led Rosetta comet mission.

Cornell faculty and students made significant contributions to Cassini’s discoveries, and Burns was an important part of that, Nicholson said, both as an expert in Saturn’s fainter “diffuse” rings and in his ability to steer graduate students toward interesting problems.

“He didn’t do image processing himself, by and large, but was more the ideas guy who tried to explain things and said, ‘We should go and collect these images because we ought to see x,’” Nicholson said. “And he was usually right.”

A former vice president of the American Astronomical Society and chair of its Division for Planetary Sciences, Burns received NASA achievement awards for his research and was named an honorary fellow of Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society, among many honors. As editor of the planetary science journal Icarus – a role he took over from Carl Sagan and passed on to Nicholson – Burns helped shape the focus and standards of published work in the field for nearly two decades.

After Cassini had orbited Saturn for four years, Burns in 2008 “did something very Joe Burns-like, very unique and extraordinary,” Altschuler said. With Judy Burns and others, he co-curated “Saturn: Images From the Cassini-Huygens Mission,” a photographic exhibition displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., in addition to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, where the student orchestra performed a related composition by Roberto Sierra.

“The images show the Saturn system as we had never seen it before,” Burns said then. “They perfectly blend exploration, science and beauty.”

In 2010, Burns received the College of Engineering’s Robert ’55 and Vanne ’57 Cowie Excellence in Teaching Award, and a 2016 ceremony dedicated the Joseph Burns Faculty Office in Upson Hall. He mentored a succession of students, many of whom won prizes and became respected scholars in the field, Nicholson said. Some shared tributes during a 2006 celebration of Burns’ 65th birthday.

“Joe, you are one of the shining examples of how to be a superb, creative and influential scientist and a warm human being at the same time,” wrote one former student.

While Cornell remained his academic home, Burns traveled extensively as a visiting professor and senior investigator, and on sabbaticals, spending time at universities and institutes in California and Arizona and abroad in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, England, France and British Columbia. He prized the scientific collaborations fostered by those international visits, and several European colleagues made return visits to Cornell.

Burns is survived by his children, Patrick Burns ’09, M.A. ’15, and Caitlin Burns.

“I know my dad will be remembered for his contributions to celestial mechanics, but above all else, he should be remembered for his character,” Patrick Burns said. “He was gentle and gracious with everyone he interacted with and unfailingly devoted to those he cared about. He was wonderful in every way.”

Speaking to the Cornell Daily Sun in 2010, Joe Burns reflected on being part of the first generation to explore the solar system with spacecraft and astronauts.

“I do get pretty emotional about the things that have happened in the past half-century,” Burns said. “To be a part of this run is pretty neat.”

A celebration of Burns’ life is planned at 1 p.m. on March 22 (his birthday) at the Kendal of Ithaca Auditorium.