Field (October 25, 1929 – July 31, 2024) was an American astrophysicist, Harvard University professor and founder director of the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

[1] He was interested in astronomy at an early age, but at the urging of his father he studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the early 1980s, Field chaired an influential National Academy of Sciences decadal study that recommended priorities for US astronomical research.

After his incumbency as CfA Director, his research focused on the theory of accretion disks in active galactic nuclei; cosmic birefringence; magnetohydrodynamics and magnetic fields in astronomy;[3] and the structure of molecular clouds.

Among his doctoral student mentees were: Eric G. Blackman, Sean M. Carroll, Carl E. Heiles, Richard Conn Henry, Christopher McKee, Péter Mészáros and Paul R.