George B. Field

George B. Field (born on October 25, 1929 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an American astrophysicist.

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. Disliking engineering, he later switched to astrophysics. After MIT he attended the graduate school at Princeton University.

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 U.S. astronomical research.

Among his doctoral students were Eric G. Blackman, Sean M. Carroll, Carl E. Heiles, Péter Mészáros, Christopher McKee, Telemachos C Mouschovias, and Paul R. Shapiro

• 1978 Karl Schwarzschild Medal
• 2014 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship