Lawrence University alumni are devoted to their alma mater and Robert Hanisch could well serve as an exemplar of such devotion. Since graduating in 1976 with a major in physics and serious time spent on piano performance, Bob has returned to Appleton frequently and made numerous contributions to Lawrence and the physics program in particular. After his graduate studies in radio astronomy at the University of Maryland—College Park, Bob was a visiting professor at Lawrence in the fall of 1981 during which he inaugurated the tradition of twice-weekly physics tea (with cookies!). More recently, Bob served as chair of the Physics Advisory Committee, a body that provides regular feedback to the LU physics department on its activities. He recently established a faculty development fund aimed at igniting new faculty research directions and broadening the impact of ongoing faculty research.
Bob’s professional career has been impressive. Following a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Netherlands, Bob joined the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, Maryland (which operates the Hubble Space Telescope under contract to NASA), and led various software development, data archiving, and computational support activities. He also directed the development of the Virtual Astronomical Observatory (VAO). The VAO is an ambitious effort to systematize astronomical data and make it available to astronomers and astrophysicists worldwide. Recently Bob moved from STScI to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, Maryland to which he brings his vast experience in the management of large and complex datasets. He will head a new department responsible for data management and informatics. In addition, he has served in a number of leadership roles with the International Astronomical Union and been a member of numerous advisory committees and review panels.
Bob continues to play the piano, accompanying a friend who is a cellist with the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago and playing in the pit orchestra in amateur theatrical productions. His wife, Susan Neff, is an astrophysicist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Their daughter, Emma Hanisch, recently graduated from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland with a major in psychology.
