The primary focus of Becklin's research is infrared imaging and spectroscopy, including the search for brown dwarfs, the detection of circumstellar dust rings, the dynamics and composition of the center of the Milky Way galaxy, and the nature of luminous infrared galaxies.
[2] A faculty member since 1989, Becklin is a Professor Emeritus of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
On August 23, 2012, in a ceremony held at Dryden Flight Research Center (now the Armstrong Flight Research Center), Becklin received the NASA Exceptional Public Service Medal “for excellence as a pioneer in the infrared astronomy field and providing key leadership for the scientific success of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.”[3] He was awarded the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship by the American Astronomical Society in 2017.
[4] In 1966, Becklin and Gerry Neugebauer discovered an exceptionally bright infrared source within Orion known today as the Becklin-Neugebauer Object.
[6] In 1988, while returning home from an observing run on Mauna Kea, Becklin was a passenger on Aloha Airlines Flight 243, which underwent explosive decompression and had to make an emergency landing in Maui.