A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Paul G. Comba | |
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Born | 1926 |
Died | April 4, 2017 | (aged 90–91)
Education | Ph.D. |
Alma mater | University of Turin, Bluffton College, Caltech |
Awards | Leslie C. Peltier Award (2003) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Mathematics, Computer Science, Astronomy |
Institutions | University of Hawaii, IBM Cambridge Scientific Center |
Thesis | Geometry of finite dimensional moment spaces and applications to orthogonal polynomials (1952) |
Doctoral advisor | Frederic Bohnenblust |
see § List of discovered minor planets |
Paul G. Comba (1926 – April 5, 2017) was an Italian-American computer scientist, an amateur astronomer and a prolific discoverer of minor planets.[2]
He was born in Tunisia to Italian parents in 1926, and moved to Italy at a young age. Admitted to university studies at the age of 17, He attended the University of Turin (1943–46). In 1946 he moved to the United States to attend Bluffton College, from which he graduated in 1947. He then attended Caltech, and completed his Ph.D. work in mathematics in 1951 (the degree was conferred at commencement in 1952). In 1951 he moved to Honolulu where he taught at the University of Hawaii until 1960.
He then joined IBM as a software developer, and later as a member of the IBM Cambridge Scientific Center. There he worked in Cryptography, and also developed a multiplication algorithm for large numbers, which reduces the multiplication time to as little as 3% of the conventional algorithm.[3][4]
In 2003 he won the Leslie C. Peltier Award for his contribution to astronomy.[5]
He is the author of the Astronomical League's Asteroid Club Observing Guide,[6] and was an active member of the Prescott Astronomy Club.[7]
Prescott Observatory
Observatory code | 684 |
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Location | Prescott, Yavapai County, Arizona |
Coordinates | 34°30′45″N 112°29′24″W / 34.5125°N 112.49°W |
After retirement in 1991, Comba moved to Prescott, Arizona, where he built the Prescott Observatory (obs. code: 684) There he specialized in discovering asteroids and has been recognized for the discovery of 644 numbered objects as of September 2013.
Refurbished in 2011, the observatory houses a PlaneWave CDK 24 inch telescope with two Takahashi wide field refractors in the dome. There is a dedicated solar observatory that is equipped with a Lunt 152 solar telescope. The observatory also has a nano lab for cosmology research that is currently equipped with a JEOL 5800LV SEM (scanning electron microscope). Prescott Observatory is an active contributor for the webcast organization SLOOH which is the premiere webcast organization for live celestial events. The observatory is now owned and operated by Matt Francis.[8]
List of discovered minor planets
7684 Marioferrero | 3 March 1997 | list |
8223 Bradshaw | 6 August 1996 | list |
8224 Fultonwright | 6 August 1996 | list |
8407 Houlahan | 25 July 1995 | list |
8420 Angrogna | 17 November 1996 | list |
8580 Pinsky | 14 December 1996 | list |
8583 Froberger | 8 January 1997 | list |
8734 Warner | 1 January 1997 | list |
8945 Cavaradossi | 1 February 1997 | list |
9238 Yavapai | 28 April 1997 | list |
9445 Charpentier | 8 May 1997 | list |
9662 Frankhubbard | 12 April 1996 | list |
9669 Symmetria | 8 July 1997 | list |
9902 Kirkpatrick | 3 July 1997 | list |
9903 Leonhardt | 4 July 1997 | list |
9987 Peano | 29 July 1997 | list |
9988 Erictemplebell | 9 September 1997 | list |
10181 Davidacomba | 26 March 1996 | list |
10204 Turing | 1 August 1997 | list |
10382 Hadamard | 15 September 1996 | list |
10588 Adamcrandall | 18 July 1996 | list |
10598 Markrees | 13 October 1996 | list |
10607 Amandahatton | 13 November 1996 | list |
10914 Tucker | 31 December 1997 | list |
11156 Al-Khwarismi | 31 December 1997 | list |
11341 Babbage | 3 December 1996 | list |
11421 Cardano | 10 June 1999 | list |
11665 Dirichlet | 14 April 1997 | list |
11709 Eudoxos | 27 April 1998 | list |
12007 Fermat | 11 October 1996 | list |
12016 Green | 1 December 1996 | list |
12022 Hilbert | 15 December 1996 | list |
12032 Ivory | 31 January 1997 | list |
12040 Jacobi | 8 March 1997 | list |
12045 Klein | 30 March 1997 | list |
12473 Levi-Civita | 10 February 1997 | list |
12493 Minkowski | 4 August 1997 | list |
12513 Niven | 27 April 1998 | list |
12576 Oresme | 5 September 1999 | list |
12874 Poisson | 19 August 1998 | list |
13192 Quine | 31 January 1997 | list |
13642 Ricci | 19 April 1996 | list |
13658 Sylvester | 18 March 1997 | list |
13672 Tarski | 30 May 1997 | list |
13673 Urysohn | 1 June 1997 | list |
14072 Volterra | 21 May 1996 | list |
14100 Weierstrass | 8 September 1997 | list |
14526 Xenocrates | 6 May 1997 | list |
14960 Yule | 21 May 1996 | list |
14990 Zermelo | 31 October 1997 | list |
14995 Archytas | 5 November 1997 | list |
15378 Artin | 7 August 1997 | list |
15396 Howardmoore | 24 October 1997 | list |
15620 Beltrami | 29 April 2000 | list |
15896 Birkhoff | 13 June 1997 | list |
15938 Bohnenblust | 27 December 1997 | list |
16065 Borel | 11 September 1999 | list |
16246 Cantor | 27 April 2000 | list |
16249 Cauchy | 29 April 2000 | list |
16755 Cayley | 9 September 1996 | list |
16765 Agnesi | 16 October 1996 | list |
16810 Pavelaleksandrov | 25 October 1997 | list |
16856 Banach | 28 December 1997 | list |
16953 Besicovitch | 27 May 1998 | list |
17076 Betti | 18 April 1999 | list |
17285 Bezout | 3 July 2000 | list |
17637 Blaschke | 11 August 1996 | list |
17653 Bochner | 10 November 1996 | list |
17696 Bombelli | 8 March 1997 | list |
17703 Bombieri | 9 September 1997 | list |
17734 Boole | 22 January 1998 | list |
17891 Buraliforti | 6 March 1999 | list |
17917 Cartan | 15 April 1999 | list |
18059 Cavalieri | 15 December 1999 | list |
18498 Cesaro | 22 June 1996 | list |
18510 Chasles | 16 September 1996 | list |
18548 Christoffel | 10 January 1997 | list |
18555 Courant | 4 February 1997 | list |
18560 Coxeter | 7 March 1997 | list |
18734 Darboux | 20 June 1998 | list |
19293 Dedekind | 18 July 1996 | list |
19349 Denjoy | 13 February 1997 | list |
19462 Ulissedini | 27 April 1998 | list |
19570 Jessedouglas | 13 June 1999 | list |
19617 Duhamel | 8 August 1999 | list |
20135 Juels | 7 May 1996 | list |
20136 Eisenhart | 8 July 1996 | list |
20155 Utewindolf | 13 October 1996 | list |
20156 Herbwindolf | 13 October 1996 | list |
20174 Eisenstein | 13 December 1996 | list |
20197 Enriques | 14 February 1997 | list |
20394 Fatou | 28 June 1998 | list |
21276 Feller | 8 October 1996 | list |
21331 Lodovicoferrari | 17 January 1997 | list |
21451 Fisher | 28 April 1998 | list |
21537 Fréchet | 15 August 1998 | list |
21659 Fredholm | 13 August 1999 | list |
21665 Frege | 5 September 1999 | list |
22474 Frobenius | 8 March 1997 | list |
22495 Fubini | 6 May 1997 | list |
22497 Immanuelfuchs | 30 May 1997 | list |
22611 Galerkin | 17 May 1998 | list |
23625 Gelfond | 19 November 1996 | list |
23699 Paulgordan | 8 July 1997 | list |
23776 Gosset | 17 August 1998 | list |
23777 Goursat | 23 August 1998 | list |
23889 Hermanngrassmann | 26 September 1998 | list |
24907 Alfredhaar | 4 February 1997 | list |
24935 Godfreyhardy | 28 April 1997 | list |
24944 Harish-Chandra | 11 June 1997 | list |
24947 Hausdorff | 7 July 1997 | list |
24998 Hermite | 28 July 1998 | list |
25000 Astrometria | 28 July 1998 | list |
25029 Ludwighesse | 26 August 1998 | list |
25082 Williamhodge | 15 September 1998 | list |
25142 Hopf | 26 September 1998 | list |
25237 Hurwitz | 20 October 1998 | list |
25593 Camillejordan | 28 December 1999 | list |
25604 Karlin | 4 January 2000 | list |
25624 Kronecker | 6 January 2000 | list |
25628 Kummer | 7 January 2000 | list |
26205 Kuratowski | 11 June 1997 | list |
26276 Natrees | 20 September 1998 | list |
26277 Ianrees | 20 September 1998 | list |
26357 Laguerre | 27 December 1998 | list |
26908 Lebesgue | 11 April 1996 | list |
26909 Lefschetz | 24 April 1996 | list |
26950 Legendre | 11 May 1997 | list |
26955 Lie | 30 June 1997 | list |
26960 Liouville | 8 July 1997 | list |
26993 Littlewood | 3 December 1997 | list |
27056 Ginoloria | 26 September 1998 | list |
27114 Lukasiewicz | 19 November 1998 | list |
27500 Mandelbrot | 12 April 2000 | list |
27514 Markov | 26 April 2000 | list |
27915 Nancywright | 30 October 1996 | list |
27922 Mascheroni | 8 December 1996 | list |
27947 Emilemathieu | 9 July 1997 | list |
27975 Mazurkiewicz | 23 October 1997 | list |
27988 Menabrea | 7 November 1997 | list |
28394 Mittag-Leffler | 13 September 1999 | list |
28516 Möbius | 27 February 2000 | list |
28729 Moivre | 11 April 2000 | list |
28766 Monge | 29 April 2000 | list |
29435 Mordell | 8 May 1997 | list |
29447 Jerzyneyman | 12 August 1997 | list |
29448 Pappos | 23 August 1997 | list |
29458 Pearson | 30 September 1997 | list |
29463 Benjaminpeirce | 2 October 1997 | list |
29491 Pfaff | 23 November 1997 | list |