astro.wikisort.org - Researcher

Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense (June 3, 1923 – January 21, 2017)[1] was a German-born American astrophysicist known for her work on Cepheid variables and convection in stellar atmospheres.

Erika Böhm-Vitense
Born	Erika Vitense (1923-06-03)June 3, 1923 Kurau (now to Stockelsdorf), Schleswig-Holstein, Germany
Died	January 21, 2017(2017-01-21) (aged 93) Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Alma mater	University of Kiel
Known for	Mixing Length theory, Barium stars, stellar astrophysics
Spouse(s)	Karl-Heinz Hermann Böhm
Children	4
Awards	Annie Jump Cannon Award in Astronomy, Karl Schwarzschild Medal
Scientific career
Fields	Astrophysics
Institutions	University of Washington, Seattle
Academic advisors	Ludwig Biermann, Albrecht Unsöld

Early life

Böhm-Vitense was born Erika Helga Ruth Vitense on 3 June 1923 in Kurau, Germany. She was the second of three girls. Her parents, Wilma and Hans Vitense were both teachers. She, along with her sisters, was raised in Lübeck, Germany.[2]

Education

Erika started her undergraduate studies at University of Tübingen in 1943. However, she moved to Kiel University in 1945 in favor of a stronger astronomy department than at her first institution. She completed her undergraduate degree in 1948.[2]

She remained at Kiel for her graduate studies, working with Albrecht Unsöld. Erika successfully defended her thesis Continuous absorption coefficients as a function of pressure and temperature in the Sun in 1951 and received her doctorate degree.[2]

Work and research efforts

After receiving her Ph.D., Erika remained at Kiel as a Research Associate.

Two years after receiving her Ph.D., she published Die Wasserstoffkonvektionszone der Sonne. Mit 11 Textabbildungen which translates to The hydrogen convection zone of the Sun. With 11 text illustrations. This is one of her most famous works as it has been cited 287 times since its publication.[3]

After getting married in 1954, she and her husband visited Lick Observatory and University of California, Berkeley for one year. Upon their return to Kiel, her husband, who was also an astrophysicist, was given a tenure track position, but she was not.

In 1968, they both moved to the University of Washington where she started as Senior Research Associate. She was awarded a full-time professor position in 1971, and became a professor emeritus later on.[4] During her time at the University of Washington, she made fundamental contributions to the understanding of stellar binaries, stellar temperatures, chromospheric activity, rotation, and convection.[5] She also made substantial contributions to the fundamentals of Mixing Length Theory.[6] She continued this work through the rest of her career.

Around 1978, Erika realized that the ultraviolet band of light was the best way to make observations of stellar chromospheres. The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) launched in January 1978, and she was able to use this data to further her work.[7]

Notable works

Erika has over 300 academic papers on the Harvard Astrophysics Data System, of which she is the first author on more than two-thirds of these publications.[8]

• Die Wasserstoffkonvektionszone der Sonne. Mit 11 Textabbildungen (Zeitschrift für Astrophysik: 1953)
• Introduction to Stellar Astrophysics (Cambridge University Press: 1989) ISBN 0-521-34869-2

Personal life

Erika met her husband, Karl-Heinz Böhm at Kiel, where he was also in astrophysics. They married in 1953 and had four children: Hans, Manfred, Helga, and Eva.[2]

Death

Erika died on 21 January 2017 in Seattle, Washington.[4]

Honors and awards

• Best thesis prize at Kiel University in 1951.
• Annie Jump Cannon Prize from the American Astronomical Society in 1965.[9]
• Elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
• Karl Schwarzschild Medal from the Astronomische Gesellschaft in 2003[10]

References

External links

• Karl Schwarzschild Medal laudation
• UWA obituary
• AAS obituary
• IAU affiliations

На других языках

---

[de] Erika Böhm-Vitense

Erika Böhm-Vitense (* 3. Juni 1923 in Curau, Schleswig-Holstein; † 21. Januar 2017) war eine deutsch-amerikanische Astronomin. Sie ist für ihre Arbeiten über die Cepheiden und Sternatmosphären bekannt.

---

- [en] Erika Böhm-Vitense

---

[es] Erika Böhm-Vitense

Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense (Kurau, Alemania, 3 de junio de 1923 - Seattle, Estados Unidos, 21 de enero de 2017) fue una astrofísica estadounidense de origen alemán conocida por su trabajo sobre las estrellas variables cefeidas y la convección en atmósferas estelares.[1]

---

[fr] Erika Böhm-Vitense

Erika Böhm-Vitense (née le 3 juin 1923 à Curau (de) et morte le 21 janvier 2017 (à 93 ans) à Seattle[1]) est une astronome connue pour son travail sur les variables céphéides et les atmosphères stellaires. Elle a reçu son doctorat de l'université de Kiel en 1951 et est professeur émérite à l'Université de Washington. En 1965, le prix d'astronomie Annie J. Cannon lui est décerné par l'Union américaine d'astronomie.

---

[ru] Бем-Фитензе, Эрика

Эрика Хельга Рут Бем-Фитензе (англ. и нем. Erika Helga Ruth Böhm-Vitense, 3 июня 1923, Германия — 21 января 2017, Сиэтл, США)[2] — американская астроном немецкого происхождения, известная своими исследованиями цефеид и звёздных атмосфер.

---

---