The Irvin Marvin Winer Memorial Mobile Observatory, Inc. was named upon its incorporation in 1983 after Irvin M. Winer. The Winer Scientific Director, Mark Trueblood, met Irv at Wesleyan University in 1971, when Mark had just begun his graduate studies in physics and Irv had just completed his Ph.D. and was staying on as an assistant professor. Irv had a fresh and honest approach to all matters in life that truly impressed Mark, and when Irv died in 1982 at the age of 46 after a long illness, Mr. Trueblood decided that the best way to memorialize his friendship with a great human being was to name the observatory after him.
Irvin Marvin Winer was born April 7, 1935 in Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Baltimore City College (high school) in 1953, and obtained his B.A. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1957. He was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society while at Johns Hopkins. He spent another year there as a graduate physics instructor in the optics laboratory, but his interest in astrophysics took him to Indiana University, where he was a graduate student and astronomy research associate concentrating on binary stars during the years 1958-1960. Although he left Indiana University in 1960 without obtaining an advanced degree, he remained interested in astrophysics throughout his brief life, serving as a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society during the years 1962-1974, and leading a group of undergraduate and graduate students to the solar eclipse in Canada in 1972 and another group including Mark Trueblood and mutual friend and Wesleyan graduate Andy Tomer to the solar eclipse in North Dakota in 1979. It was Andy who later suggested that Mr. Trueblood's new observatory corporation be named to memorialize Irv.
In 1960, Irv became an instructor in mathematics and physics at Western Maryland College in Westminster, Maryland, staying until 1963 to join the Laser Physics Laboratory of Korad Corporation in Santa Monica, California. Irv left Korad in 1967 to return to graduate school in physics, this time at Wesleyan University. In 1970, Irv earned his Ph.D., writing his thesis on the Eotvos experiment, a test of the Principle of Equivalence in Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Laboratory tests of General Relativity are some of the most difficult in all of modern experimental physics, requiring a thorough understanding of the theory of, and intricate subtleties in mechanical, electrical, and optical engineering.
Irv married Mercedes Bueno in 1962; they were later divorced when they moved back out to the west coast. They had one child, a son Ernest Albert born March 29, 1963.
After obtaining his doctorate degree, Irv was appointed an assistant professor in the physics department of Wesleyan University and served in that role until 1973. In that year, he joined International Laser Systems, Inc. of Orlando, Florida and moved there, taking with him Andy Tomer as an assistant. Irv's work with lasers carried him to the Centre de Recherche Nucleaire in Strasbourg, France where he designed, managed the development, and installed a Nd:YAG mode-locked laser system capable of second and fourth harmonic generation. Later, he was transferred to Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was Manager/Scientist of the Developmental Optical Facility. There he worked on optical component fabrication, optical thin film coatings, and optical metrology in support of high energy laser work in various laboratories throughout the country.
Irv left International Laser Systems in 1976 and joined the Missile and Space Systems Division of Douglas Aircraft Company, working in the Avionics and Guidance Section in San Diego, California on cruise missile navigation theoretical problems in laboratory fusion initiation and containment. While working on the west coast, Irv became ill, and in the winter of 1982 drove back to the east coast to die in his home town of Baltimore on March 1. While he was at Douglas Aircraft, Irv was a member of the Optical Society of America, serving as President of the Optical Society of San Diego in 1979-1980. Irv viewed defense work as an opportunity to work with lasers and on projects that had the potential to have a major positive social impact, such as fusion electric power generation.
In May 2001, the International Astronomical Union honored Irv by naming asteroid number 15606 'Winer' upon the recommendation of the asteroid's discoverer, Charles W. Juels, MD of Fountain Hills, Arizona. Dr. Juels discovered the asteroid on April 11, 2000 whereupon the Minor Planet Center gave it the provisional designation 2000 GU122 and announced the official name in Minor Planet Circular 42675. When the orbit was known with sufficient accuracy that it was unlikely to be lost, it was given the number 15606 and Dr. Juels was given the right for the next 10 years to propose a name. The Winer Observatory is indebted to Dr. Juels for his recognition of Irv's accomplishments and his importance in the lives of those around him. To see a diagram of the orbit of 15606 Winer, please click here.
Some of Irvin M. Winer's publications include:
Patents
Last modified: January 1, 2010.