| Bambang Hidayat | |
| Birth Date: | 18 September 1934 |
| Birth Place: | Kudus Regency, Central Java Indonesia |
| Citizenship: | Indonesian |
| Nationality: | Indonesian |
| Fields: | Astronomy |
| Workplaces: | Bosscha Observatory Bandung Institute of Technology International Astronomical Union |
| Alma Mater: | Case Western Reserve University |
Bambang Hidayat is an Indonesian scientist known for promoting astronomy nationally and internationally.[1] His work has focused on the study of binary stars and galactic structure.[2] The minor star Hidayat (3468 T-3), discovered in 1977, was named after him by Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld.[1] He has over forty papers published to his name and has written several astronomy textbooks.[3]
He graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 1965.[4] Soon thereafter, he served as the director of the Bosscha Observatory from 1968 until 1999.[1] He also served as the Chairman of the Department of Astronomy at the Bandung Institute of Technology as well as Vice President of the International Astronomical Union from 1994 to 2000,[1] [2] and has been a fellow of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences (IAS) since 1992[5] He is also a member of the American Astronomical Society, Royal Astronomical Society, and Indonesian Academy of Sciences, as well as the founder of the Indonesian Astronomical Society and co-founder of the Indonesian Physics Society.[3]
Hidayat helped to establish the first International School for Young Astronomers in Indonesia. When first visited by Donat Wentzel, himself a pioneer in establishing ISYAs, Hidayat was alone in his observatory; later, Wentzel found that Hidayat had trained a group of astronomy students to work around him as well as spurred others to work in astronomy and Indonesia's space program elsewhere.[6]