from Rhodes College in physics in 1960 where he was inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, and his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1968 in atmospheric sciences.
He was principal investigator for the White Light Coronagraph operated by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO) aboard the crewed Skylab satellite from 1970 to 1977.
In 1974, he received NASA's Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal for his Skylab work as principal investigator of the white light coronagraph experiment that took nearly 36,000 photographs during the Apollo flight (it was one of six solar observing instruments).
[2] In a joint project with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, he was one of the principal investigators for a series of solar observing rocket flights.
[4] Dr. MacQueen was also a lecturer (1969–1979) and an adjunct professor in the Department of Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Colorado.