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The latest update on
developments concerning the Leonid MAC airborne campaigns.
Update November 29, 2001
 Dr. J. Mayo Greenberg
DR. MAYO GREENBERG HAS PASSED AWAY
On Thursday November 29, we learned that Dr. J. Mayo Greenberg passed away
peacefully. Mayo is remembered as a great scientist and a leader in the field of
insterstellar and interplanetary matter. With a background in the field of light scattering,
he became director of a new "Laboratory for Astrophysics" at Leiden University
in the Netherlands in 1975, which was later
followed by several other such laboratories in the world. Over the years,
numerous students and post-docs made many discoveries into the physical
processes on interstellar grains and in comets, which Mayo always knew to
put in a big picture. He was particularly known for the work on "yellow stuff", the
organic matter on insterstellar grains that is a product of the UV irradiation of
an icy frost in dense molecular clouds. Over time, Mayo's interests shifted from tiny far away
dust grains to larger dust agregates in nearby comets, culminating in his recent interest
in meteors. In April of 2000,
Mayo participated in the Leonid MAC Workshop in Tel Aviv, organised by two of
his former students, and formulated his ideas on comets as related to meteors in
"From Comets to Meteors". Mayo was the first to submit
his manuscript. Thanks to Mayo, I was
able to pursue a career in meteor studies. I remember my former
thesis adviser as a great inspiration and he is sadly missed - Peter Jenniskens
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