Named in honor of William M. Sinton, planetary astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii, on the occasion of his retirement. Sinton came to Hawaii in 1966 from the Lowell Observatory, where he had already established himself in the field of infrared astronomy and was codiscoverer of CO in Alpha Orionis. Instrumental in the development of Mauna Kea as a premier astronomical observatory, Sinton was responsible for the specification and design of the computer operating environment for the University’s 2.24-m telescope, one of the first telescopes to be computer controlled. He has been a pioneer in bringing new technology and ideas to the subject of thermal infrared studies of the planets, particularly Venus and Mars. He has habitually selected technically difficult problems to work on, including some of the very earliest spectroscopy with interferometers, thermal emission spectroscopy of the stars and... _ _.