Michael Kurtz

Michael Kurtz is an astronomer and computer scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, which he joined after receiving a Ph.D. in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1982. Kurtz is the author or co-author of over 300 technical articles and abstracts on subjects ranging from cosmology and extra-galactic astronomy to data reduction and archiving techniques to information systems and text retrieval algorithms. In 1988 Kurtz conceived what has now become the Smithsonian/NASA Astrophysics Data System, the core of the digital library in astronomy, perhaps the most sophisticated discipline centered library extant. He has been associated with the project since that time, and was awarded the 2001 Van Biesbroeck Prize of the American Astronomical Society. He is a fellow in the Astrophysics Division of the American Physical Society and a fellow in the Computer, Communications and Information Science section of the American Asso. for the Advancement of Science.