John J. Kavelaars

Who is John J. Kavelaars?

J-John Kavelaars, better known as JJ Kavelaars, is a Canadian astronomer who was part of a team that discovered several moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Dr. Kavelaars, born in 1966, is a graduate of the Glencoe District High School in Glencoe, Ontario, the University of Guelph, and Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He is currently an astronomer at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria, B.C.

In the course of his work, he has been responsible for the discovery of eleven satellites of Saturn, eight of Uranus, and four of Neptune, and a hundred or so minor planets. Dr. Kavelaars is the Coordinator of the Canada France Ecliptic Plane Survey which is part of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey CFHTLS: a project dedicated to the discovery and tracking of objects in the outer solar system.

Dr. Kavelaars is the brother of Canadian actress Ingrid Kavelaars and Canadian fencing athlete Monique Kavelaars.

The asteroid 154660 Kavelaars was named in his honour on 1 June 2007 by his colleague David D. Balam.†