Fastie, William G., 1916-2000

William (Bill) G. Fastie was born on December 6, 1916 in Baltimore, MD. He grew up in West Baltimore, and after graduating high school, he attended college in the evenings while working during the day in a grocery store. Although he did enter Johns Hopkins as an undergraduate, he never earned a bachelor's degree. Instead, he was offered a scholarship to study graduate physics at Hopkins. After working in the program for four years, he was offered a position as a research assistant. Fastie worked as a research assistant from 1941-1945. In 1945, he accepted a position as Research Physicist with Leeds and Northrup. While working there, he discovered that a spectrometer could be improved by using two mirrors, rather than one. He later discovered that this spectrometer had been invented by Hermann Ebert; the device was eventually named the Fastie-Ebert Spectrometer. Fastie returned to JHU in 1951 as research contract director and research scientist for the Physics Department. In 1968, he also became an Adjunct Research professor of physics. He remained in that position until he retired in 1996. During his time at Hopkins, Fastie worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. Fastie received an honorary PhD from the University of Colorado in 1990, and the Doctor of Humane Letters from JHU in 1997. He died in July, 2000.

Pre-eminent astrophysicist who helped start the Johns Hopkins University space program in the late 1950s and early 1960s; best known for designing a spectrometer for use in rocket launching; research in optics and infrared spectrum analysis; other affiliations: NDRC, and Leeds and Northrup (PA).