1925
Born to Nels William and Julia Brown Knudsen in Provo, Utah.
1943
Enlisted in the US Army Reserve Corps during his senior year of high school.
1944
Graduates from high school with highest class grade point average. One of four valedictorians at the senior graduation ceremonies.
1944
Is inducted into the US Army Signal Corps. Two years later he is honorably discharged from the US Army with rank of T-4.
1948
Marries Ruth Crandall Knudsen who was enrolled at BYU.
1950
Earns a B.S. from Brigham Young University with high honors; receives a student assistantship to the University of Wisconsin.
1952
Awarded a Master of Science degree in physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1954
Earns a Doctor of Philosophy in physics with a specialization in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
1954
Accepts an offer to be a Research Scientist in Standard Oil of California’s oil and gas exploration research lab in Orange County, CA.
1962
Accepted an offer to join the Space Science Laboratory of Lockheed Missile and Space Company located in Palo Alto, CA.
1972
Submitted to NASA a proposal to build and test an instrument named ORPA to measure the physical properties of the Venus ionosphere.
1973
The aforementioned instrument is to be mounted on the planned NASA Pioneer Venus spacecraft.
1979
Pioneer Venus spacecraft successfully inserted in orbit at Venus and ORPA analyzing Venus ionospheric components as designed.
1979
For the next 10 years he and his coinvestigator report the results in scientific journals and at international science meetings.
1980
Is awarded the GROUP ACHIEVEMENT AWARD by The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
1984
Retires from Lockheed, forms Knudsen Geophysical Research Corporation; continues analyzing and reporting Venus data with NASA contract.
1991
Pioneer Venus spacecraft descends into atmosphere and burns up with ORPA.
1995
Completes analysis of Venus data and dissolves KNUDSEN GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH CORPORATION.
2015
Publish his last paper reporting temperature and concentration of solar wind electrons near Venus.