James Cuffey

Who was James Cuffey?

James Cuffey was an American astronomer. He specialized in photoelectric photometry and held the patent on the Cuffey Iris Photometer, an instrument used in stellar photographic photometry.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Cuffey became a graduate student at Northwestern University in 1934, then went on to Harvard University as a doctoral student under Harlow Shapley. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1938, then took a position as a postdoctoral fellow at Indiana University. Serving in the United States Navy in World War II, Cuffey taught navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1946, he returned to Indiana University, where he became a researcher in the Indiana Asteroid Program, begun in 1949. In 1966, he joined Clyde Tombaugh in starting the astronomy program at New Mexico State University, where he remained until he retired in 1976.

Cuffey was married to astronomer Rita Paraboschi. They had four children. Cuffey died in Bloomington, Indiana. The asteroid 2334 Cuffey is named in his honor.