Eric J. Chaisson (pronounced chase-on, born on October 26, 1946, in Lowell, Massachusetts) is an American astrophysicist known for his research, teaching, and writing on the interdisciplinary science of cosmic evolution.
He took leave from academia in 1986 at MIT Lincoln Laboratory as staff physicist working on ballistic missile defense amidst occasional consulting and advising for many years with the military-intelligence community.
Bok Prize[19] for “original radio-astronomy discoveries,” the 1980 Smith-Weld Prize[20] for “best article by a Harvard faculty member,” a 1990 (and 1994) certificate of recognition from NASA with U.S. flag flown aboard the Space Shuttle-31 mission for “exceptional performance on the Hubble Space Telescope program,”[21][22] as well as unsought fellowships from the Sloan Foundation and the National Academy of Sciences.
His 2018 election to the rank of AAAS Fellow noted his "research and teaching contributions to astrophysics, including co-authoring the nation's most widely used astronomy textbook."
In the 1990s, he co-produced and hosted the educational PBS (Maryland Intec) television series, Starfinder, highlighting Hubble Space Telescope discoveries and people, now freely available online at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.