Background
Field became interested in astronomy at an early age, but at the urging of his father he studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Astronomer university professor
Field became interested in astronomy at an early age, but at the urging of his father he studied chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
After Massachusetts Institute of Technology he attended the graduate school at Princeton University.
Disliking engineering, he later switched to astrophysics. Field worked on plasma oscillations and later became interested in cosmology. In 1973 he became the founding director of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, an innovative organizational structure that unified the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (a government agency) and the Harvard College Observatory (a private institution) under a single management.
Field served as director until 1982, when he was succeeded by Irwin I. Shapiro.
In the early 1980s Field chaired an influential National Academy of Science decadal study that recommended priorities for United States. astronomical research. Among his doctoral students were Eric G. Blackman, Sean M. Carroll, Carl East. Heiles, Péter Mészáros, Christopher McKee, Telemachos C Mouschovias, and Paul R. Shapiro.
National Academy of Sciences.