Named in honor of Owen Jay Gingerich, Harvard professor of astronomy and of the history of science, and an astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.  Although he has made important contributions to the modeling of stellar atmospheres, he is best known for effectively setting the standards of scholarship for modern studies of the history of astronomy and astrophysics.

Named in memory of Otto Struvé (1897-1963), last of a remarkable astronomical lineage. His great-grandfather, Wilhelm Struvé, founded the Pulkovo Observatory in 1839; his grandfather (Otto), uncle (Hermann) and father (Ludwig) were also distinguished astronomers.  Following a period of great privation and misery after World War I, he was invited by Edwin B. Frost to come to the Yerkes Observatory in 1921.

Named in honor of Iosif Samuilovich Shklovskij, corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, professor at Moscow University and member of the staff at the Space Research Institute.  A brilliant popularizer of astronomy, he has also made substantial contributions to research on the solar corona, galactic radio emission and various cosmic objects. Academician Shklovskij was named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada on 1966-03-11.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 8543

Named in memory of Joel Stebbins (1878-1966), who pioneered the development of photoelectric methods for measuring astronomical radiation, first at the University of Illinois, then at the University of Wisconsin. He applied the method in work on eclipsing binaries, interstellar reddening and the integrated magnitudes of galaxies.  Others have used the technique to study the shapes, rotation periods and surface properties of asteroids.

Named in honor of Audouin Dollfus (d. 2010-10-01), astronomer at the Observatoire de Paris, Meudon.  Dollfus was renowned for his fundamental work on planetary polarimetry and ground-based imaging, including studies of Saturn’s rings, the Martian and lunar surfaces, and the Venus atmosphere.  He worked on the polarimetric properties of minor planets. He was named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada on 1975-01-25.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 6531

Named in honor of Frank Maine Bateson (d. 2006), director of the Variable Star section of the Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand since 1928.  He led the site survey of New Zealand that resulted in the establishment of the Mount John University Observatory and was astronomer-in-charge there until 1968.  Dr. Bateson and his wife Doris supported and encouraged astronomy in New Zealand. He was named an Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada on 1984-06-30.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 6210

Named in honor of the Belgian amateur astronomer and professional meteorologist Jean Meeus, among whose numerous contrubutions to astronomy are the original 1963 edition of "Tables des Petites Planetes" and improved and updated versions of Oppolzer’s canon of eclipses.  His other writings range from dynamical studies of long-term motions of Apollo objects, through examinations of geometrical configurations of the planets, to the debunking of the idea that there exist observations of faint natural satellites of the earth.  Name proposed by E.

Named in memory of Charles Darwin (1809-1882), the English naturalist who first established the theory of organic evolution; much of his research was done in Argentina, and he crossed the Andes at a pass located some 100 km south of El Leoncito.  This planet also honors his second son, George Howard Darwin (1845-1912), the astronomer noted for his pioneering application of detailed dynamical analyses to problems of cosmogony and geology.

Orbit type: Main Belt Asteroid

Reference: MPC 53173