James Bailey "Jim" Kaler (December 29, 1938 — November 26, 2022 ) was an American astronomer and science writer.

Personal life and education

Kaler was born to Earl and Hazel Holmgren Kaler on December 29th, 1938. After elementary and high-school education in Albany, New York, Kaler earned his A.B. at the University of Michigan in 1960. He attended graduate school at the University of Michigan (1960–61), at Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (Germany, 1961–62), and UCLA (1962–64), where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Astronomy 1964. His thesis advisor was Lawrence H. Aller. He was married to Maxine Grossman and they had three children. He died due to complications of Parkinson's Disease on November 26th, 2022.

Professional career

Kaler started his professional career with appointments as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Michigan from 1958 to summer 1960. In 1961 he worked as an astronomer with the United States Naval Observatory. In 1964 he was appointed as an assistant professor of Astronomy by the University of Illinois, and promoted to associate professor in 1968 and to a full professor position in 1976 (all at University of Illinois). Since 1995 he is Campus Honors Faculty. In 2003 he retired to become professor emeritus at the University of Illinois. Kaler published over 120 papers. Examples include work on He has served as president of the board of directors of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and of the Board of the Champaign Urbana Symphony Orchestra.

Honors and awards

Works

Jim Kaler has written for a variety of magazines, and was a consultant for Time-Life Books. He has long appeared on Illinois television and radio. In addition to two textbooks and three audio courses, he published several books, including His online star database "STARS" has scored more than 4 million visitors since its release in 1988.