Eugene N. Parker (born 10 June 1927) is an American solar astrophysicist who receive his B.S. degree in physics from Michigan State University in 1948 and Ph.D., from Caltech in 1951. He is most famous for developing, in the mid 1950s, the theory of the supersonic solar wind, and for predicting the Parker spiral shape of the solar magnetic field in the outer solar system. In 1987, Parker proposed that the solar corona might be heated by myriad tiny "micro-flares", miniature solar flares that occur all over the surface of the Sun.