Austin Keith Pierce (October 2, 1918 – March 11, 2005) was an American solar astronomer.

Pierce played a key role in the development of the McMath–Pierce solar telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

[1] During the Second World War, Pierce worked on uranium isotope separation as part of the Manhattan Project, first at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and then at Oak Ridge in Tennessee.

McMath obtained federal funding for a large solar telescope and chose Pierce to lead the project.

[3] Kitt Peak Observatory was chosen for the site so in 1958 Pierce and his family relocated to Tucson, Arizona.