Asteroid 3531 was named Cruikshank by the International Astronomical Union (recognizing excellence in research on Solar System topics, and the outreach for scientific exchange with the USSR), after Dr. Dale Cruikshank PhD, a research scientist who has worked for NASA since 1988, and who pioneered the application of infrared spectroscopy to small bodies in the outer Solar System.

Cruikshank's research and publication record has been extensive and sustained, since his first years in graduate school. By the time he received his Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, he had authored or coauthored 21 research papers. Of the more than 250 professional publications in his full bibliography, he has authored or coauthored 78 refereed research papers in scientific journals and books since joining NASA in 1988

Dr. Dale Cruikshank has pioneered the application of infrared spectroscopy to small bodies in the outer Solar System. His discoveries confirm the conjecture that ices are the dominant component of OSS bodies. With colleagues, he discovered the five ices known on Triton, the three ices known on Pluto, and water ice on four large satellites of Uranus, two satellites of Saturn, Neptune's satellite Nereid, and Pluto's satellite. With colleagues, he was first to find H₂O ice in the Kuiper Belt, and methanol ice on a Centaur that links these bodies to comets. The ices he found on Triton and Pluto are the sources of the atmospheres of these two bodies.

He co-discovered bands in Io's spectrum, later identified as volcanic SO₂, the source of that object's variable atmosphere. Cruikshank pioneered in thermal infrared determinations of the albedos of small bodies beyond the asteroid main belt, leading to the recognition that low-albedo material is prevalent in the OSS. His spectroscopic observations and models gave the first firm evidence for complex organic solids a planetary body (Saturn's satellite Iapetus), and provide the basis for work in progress on the identification of such materials on trans-Neptunian bodies and related bodies in the OSS. Cruikshank's infrared spectroscopic work was the first to identify specific near-Earth asteroids as sources of basaltic meteorites, and specific main-belt asteroids as sources of other classes of differentiated meteorites. Back on Earth, in 1972 he discovered hydrogen combustion in burning volcanic gases by spectroscopy, solving a century-old puzzle.

Honors and Awards:

• Manned Flight Awareness Award, NASA Ames Research Center
• Honor Award-Scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
• NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement (recognizing research on organic matter in the Solar System)
• Muhlmann Prize of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (for the best research work at Mauna Kea Observatories)
• Group Achievement Award, Infrared Spectrometer Team (IRIS) on the Voyager Mission at Saturn
• Group Achievement Award, Infrared Spectrometer Team (IRIS) on the Voyager Mission at Uranus
• Asteroid 3531 named Cruikshank by the International Astronomical Union (recognizing excellence in research on Solar System topics, and the outreach for scientific exchange with the USSR)
• Group Achievement Award, Infrared Spectrometer Team (IRIS) on the Voyager Mission at Neptune
• Elected Fellow, California Academy of Science
• NASA group achievement award for work on Cassini VIMS team