Alumni: Lawrence H. Helfer, 1953
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1953

Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, University of Rochester

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Professor Helfer received his PhD in Astronomy from The University of Chicago in 1953. After spending time in the US Army, and in postdoctoral positions at The Cargenie Institution of Washington (Dept. of Terrestrial Magnetism), and the California Institute of Technology, he joined the University as an Assistant Professor of Astronomy in 1958. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1963 and to Professor in 1970. From 1992 to the present he has been Professor Emeritus and a Senior Faculty Associate. He has served from 1986 to the present as a Senior Scientist at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

Professor Helfer has worked in many fields of observational and theoretical astrophysics, including examining the structure of the boundary layer between an accretion disk and a white dwarf, occurring in cataclysmic variable systems. His most recent work deals with models of dark matter halos.