Dale P. Cruikshank is an astronomer and planetary scientist in the Astrophysics Branch at NASA Ames Research Center.
He uses spectroscopic observations made with ground-based and space-based telescopes, as well as interplanetary spacecraft, to identify and study the ices, minerals, and organic materials that compose the surfaces of planets and small bodies.
As an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy, he helped with the development of Mauna Kea as one of the most important observatory sites in the world, and used the many telescopes there for his observational studies of the bodies in the Solar System.
[1] He is also a member of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and its Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS).
In 1988, asteroid 3531 Cruikshank was named after him by the International Astronomical Union, recognizing excellence in research on Solar System topics, and the outreach for scientific exchange with the USSR.