Frederick C. Leonard

Who was Frederick C. Leonard?

Frederick Charles Leonard was an American astronomer. As a faculty member at the University of California, Los Angeles, he conducted extensive research on double stars and meteorites, largely shaping the university's Department of Astronomy. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago in 1918 and his PhD in astronomy from the University of California at Berkeley in 1921. Leonard was an astronomer from his teenage years, founding the Society for Practical Astronomy in 1909. In 1923 he founded The Society for Research on Meteorites, which later became known as the Meteoritical Society. In 1933 he became its first president and was the Editor of the Society's journal for the next 25 years. The Society instituted the Leonard Medal in 1962, its premier award for outstanding contributions to the science of meteoritics and closely allied fields.