Named in honor of George B. Field {1929– }, director of the Harvard College Observatory and Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory since 1973. A well-known theoretician who has made significant contributions in many areas of astrophysics, most notably concerning processes in the interstellar medium and intergalactic medium, he was also serving as chairman of the U.S. Astronomy Survey committee on the needs of astronomy in the 1980s. (M 6648) _ _.