Introduction
David Perry Rubincam, Ph.D. (born February 27, 1947) is an American geophysicist with specialties in solid-earth geophysics, planetary geodynamics and celestial mechanics. He has worked as a civilian scientist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since 1978. The main-belt asteroid 9921 Rubincam was named in his honor.
Education
He received a B.S. in Physics (1970), M.S. in Physics (1972), and Ph.D. in Physics (1973) from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Professional career
From 1974-1976 he served as a Resident Research Associate at the National Academy of Sciences and National Research Council.
From 1976-1978 he served as Lead Analyst in Geophysics at Wolf Research and Development Group, EG&G, Inc.
From 1978 to present, he has served as a Geophysicist in the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. He studies secular effects in the solar system such as tidal friction, the Yarkovsky effect, and the Yarkovsky–O'Keefe–Radzievskii–Paddack effect (YORP) effect. One of his many contributions while at NASA was conducting research to understand the dynamics of orbital decay of artificial Earth satellites. Current interests include asteroids and asteroid pairs.
Society memberships
Rubincam is a member of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.