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Donald Delbert Clayton (born 1935) is an American astrophysicist whose most visible achievement was prediction on sound nucleosynthesis grounds that supernovae are intensely radioactive. For the many significant consequences of that discovery he was awarded the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1992) for “theoretical astrophysics related to the formation of (chemical) elements in the explosions of stars and to the observable products of these explosions”. Supernovae became the most important stellar events in astronomy owing to their profoundly radioactive nature. Clayton's wider works lay foundations for five subfields of astrophysical research: (1) the assembly of the atomic nuclei of the common chemical elements by nuclear reactions within the stars; (2) astronomy of gamma-ray lines emitted by radioactive atoms ejected by supernovae; (3) growth in time of the interstellar abundances of the chemical elements, especially of their radioactive isotopes, owing to continuing births of new stars and deaths of old ones; (4) predicting a solid-state-astronomy based on the relative abundances of the isotopes of the elements within solid interstellar dust grains; (5) condensation of solid carbon grains within hot expanding radioactive supernova gases containing more oxygen than carbon atoms (previously believed impossible). Clayton spearheaded these subfields in works from research positions at California Institute of Technology (1956–63; 1966–67), Rice University (1963–89), Cambridge University (1967–74), Max-Plank Institute for Nuclear Physics (1977–83), and Clemson University (1989-2015) during an international academic career spanning six decades. Clayton has authored four books for public: a novel ''The Joshua Factor'' (1985) is a parable of the origin of mankind and the mystery of solar neutrinos; a science autobiography ''Catch a Falling Star''; an early memoir ''The Dark Night Sky'', of cultural interest owing to his conception of it in 1970 as layout for a movie〔 with Italian filmmaker Roberto Rosselini 〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1970 Clayton and Rosselini in Sardinia )〕 about a cosmological life (See Personal below); ''Handbook of Isotopes in the Cosmos'' (Cambridge Univ. Press 2003) describes in prose the nuclear origin of each isotope of our natural elements. Clayton has published on the web ''Photo Archive for the History of Nuclear Astrophysics'' from his personal photographs and his researched captions recording photographic history during research in nuclear astrophysics.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=PHOTO ARCHIVE IN NUCLEAR ASTROPHYSICS )〕 ==National honors== *Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences *NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal (1992)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=NASA Headquarters Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal )〕 *Leonard Medal of the Meteoritical Society (1991)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Leonard Medal of Meteoritical Society )〕 *NASA Public Service Group Achievement Award for the Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Team on NASA's Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (1992)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=OSSE Meeting at Northwestern University April 1993 )〕 *Jesse Beams Medal of the American Physical Society (1998)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Jesse W. Beams Medal, American Physical Society Southeastern Section )〕 *South Carolina Governor's Award for Excellence in Science (1994)〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=South Carolina Governor's Award for Excellence in Science )〕 *Alexander von Humboldt Award (1977 and 1982) sponsored by Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik, Heidelberg〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Alexander von Humboldt Senior Scientist Award )〕 *Selection for one of the 50 most influential research papers of the 20th century by American Astronomical Society and inclusion in the AAS Centennial Volume〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Donald Clayton )〕 Clayton was elected to Phi Beta Kappa during his third year as a student at Southern Methodist University. He was awarded many supporting fellowships: National Science Foundation Predoctoral Fellow (1956–58); Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow (1966–68); Fulbright Fellow (1979–80); Fellow of St. Mary's College, Durham University (1987);〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Arnold Wolfendale and Donald Clayton )〕 SERC Senior Visiting Fellow, The Open University, Milton Keynes, U.K. (1993). In 1993 Clayton was named Distinguished Alumnus of Southern Methodist University,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=SMU President Kenneth Pye and Clayton )〕 37 years after his BS degree there. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Donald D. Clayton」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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