Donald R Davis

Donald R. Davis is an American astronomer specializing in the evolution of the Solar System. With William K. Hartmann, he was responsible for proposing a theory in 1975 of the creation of earth's moon by a catastrophic collision. He is credited by the Minor Planet Center with the co-discovery of the trans-Neptunian object (49673) 1999 RA215 in 1999.

In 2009, he was Academic Director at the Summer Science Program. A few months later, Davis arranged for the naming of an asteroid as 223877 Kutler, after Brendan Kutler -- a student, whom he had worked with in that program -- died in his sleep.

The main-belt asteroid 3638 Davis is named in his honor.