Donald C. Backer

Donald C. Backer (November 9, 1943 – July 25, 2010) was an American astrophysicist who primarily worked in radio astronomy. Backer made important contributions to the understanding and study of pulsars, including the discovery of the first millisecond pulsar, black holes, and the epoch of reionization.

Backer was born in Plainfield, New Jersey. He attended Cornell University, where he earned a Bachelor's degree in engineering physics (B.E.P.) from Cornell University in June 1966. He received a Master of Science degree in radio astronomy from Manchester University in 1968, and then returned to Cornell to earn his doctorate in astronomy in May 1971. Backer then took post-doctoral positions first at NRAO in Charlottesville, Virginia (1971–1973), and then at NASA/GSFC in Greenbelt, Maryland (1973–1975). In 1975, Backer moved to the University of California, Berkeley as a research astronomer in the Radio Astronomy Laboratory, and became professor of astronomy at Berkeley in 1989. Backer served as the acting chair of the Berkeley Astronomy Department from 1998 to 1999, as vice chair 1999–2001, and as chair 2002–2006 and 2007–2008. In 2008, he was appointed director of Berkeley's Radio Astronomy Laboratory. Backer collapsed outside his home and died on July 25, 2010.