Stanton J. Peale 1937-2015

Stanton J. Peale passed away on May 14, 2015 in Santa Barbara from
complications of leukemia. He was 78. Stan was surrounded by family
and friends prior to and during his passing. He was a kind and
brilliant planetary scientist with expertise in dynamics and
geophysics. His career spanned over five decades. After earning his
PhD at Cornell University in 1965, he took a faculty position at the
University of California, Los Angeles, and then at the University of
California, Santa Barbara, where he worked from 1968 until 2015. His
most recent work was submitted for publication on May 11, 2015. His
contributions include the prediction of widespread volcanism on
Jupiter's moon Io, the derivation of a general theoretical framework
that governs the rotational states of bodies subject to tides, the
study of tidal evolution in satellite systems, and the development of
an ingenious procedure to determine the size and state of Mercury's
core. He was also a pioneer in the study of extrasolar planets, both
in terms of their dynamics and their detection by microlensing. Stan's
work illustrated the power of physics to probe the interiors of
planets. Stan was awarded the Newcomb Cleveland Prize (1979), the
James Craig Watson Medal (1982), and the Brouwer Award (1992). He was
elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2009. He was a
wonderful, beloved colleague and will be deeply missed.

AAS