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F. Curtis Michel Academic Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MS 475
Finding aid note: Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Scope and Contents

This collection contains Dr. F. Curtis Michel’s space science materials including correspondence, academic talks, notes, papers, plots, proposals, and information regarding numerous conferences and symposia from all over the world.

Dates

  • 1963-1991

Creator

Access Restrictions

This material is open for research.

Stored off-site at the Library Service Center. Please request this material via woodson@rice.edu or call 713-348-2586.

Restrictions on Use

Permission to publish material from the F. Curtis Michel Papers must be obtained from the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library.

Biographical Note

F. Curtis Michel was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on June 5, 1934. He attended college at the California Institute of Technology, where he received both a Bachelor of Science degree (with honors) in Physics in 1955 and a Doctorate in Physics in 1962. Dr. Michel was employed at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company’s Guided Missile Division before joining the U.S. Air Force in 1955. He served in the military for three years and then became a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Michel came to Houston in 1963 to become a professor at Rice University, and he was one of the first faculty members of the Space Science Department there. In June of 1965, he was selected by NASA to become a scientist-astronaut, and took 4 years of leave from Rice to fulfill this position. He then returned to Rice in 1969 and served for five years as the Department Chairman (1974-1979). He was named the Andrew Hays Buchanan Professor of Astrophysics at Rice in 1974, a Guggenheim Fellow to the University of Paris, France, from 1979-1980, and a Humboldt fellow to Heidelberg, Germany from 1982-1983. Dr. Michel has also written a book called Theory of Neutron Star Magnetospheres. He is also a member of the American Geophysical Union, the American Astronomical Society, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Extent

40 Linear Feet (40 boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Overview

This collection contains Dr. F. Curtis Michel’s space science materials including correspondence, academic talks, notes, papers, plots, proposals, and information regarding numerous conferences and symposia from all over the world.

Acquisition Information

This collection was a gift donated by F. Curtis Michel in 1991.

Accruals

Summer, 2015

The addendum XIX contains materials representing Michel's academic career from the 1950s to 2014. They arrived in a state of significant dissarry, and being a collection of highly technical materials, it was not feasbale for a layman to discern more than very general series and subseries. The folder names in this guide are largely unchanged from the originals, and undated folders were left in their original places if they seemed to fit in with the materials around them. If possible, a physics or astronomy student may be able to better describe these materials, and more comprehensively incorporate them into the collection.

Summer, 2017

A binder containing typewritten notes from 1973 was accessioned in May 2017. The notes were thought to have been used for classes studying plasma in the Space Physics department. Dr. Michel asked Dr. Alex Dessler (Texas A & M) to proof the notes, and the binder included Dr. Dessler's corrections. The notes were never turned into a book. -TP

Subjects

Record Groups

Related Names

Creator

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the Curtis F. Michel Academic Papers, 1963-1991
Status
Completed
Date
2008
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Woodson Research Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas Repository

https://library.rice.edu/woodson
Contact:
Fondren Library MS-44, Rice University
6100 Main St.
Houston Texas 77005 USA

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Harmful Content Statement
© 2023 Woodson Research Center
Fondren Library, Rice University
Physical Address: 6100 Main, Houston, Texas 77005-1827
Mailing Address: MS-44, P.O. Box 1892, Houston, Texas 77251-1892