astro.wikisort.org - Researcher

Lyman Spitzer Jr. (June 26, 1914 – March 31, 1997)[2] was an American theoretical physicist, astronomer and mountaineer. As a scientist, he carried out research into star formation, plasma physics, and in 1946, conceived the idea of telescopes operating in outer space.[3] Spitzer invented the stellarator plasma device[4] and is the namesake of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. As a mountaineer, he made the first ascent of Mount Thor, with Donald C. Morton.[5]

Lyman Spitzer
Born	Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1914-06-26)June 26, 1914 Toledo, Ohio, United States
Died	March 31, 1997(1997-03-31) (aged 82)[1] Princeton, New Jersey, US
Alma mater	Princeton University (Ph.D.) Yale University (B.A.) Phillips Academy
Known for	Research in star formation and plasma physics Promotion of space telescopes
Spouse(s)	Doreen Canaday (1940)
Awards	Henry Draper Medal (1974) National Medal of Science (1979) Crafoord Prize (1985)
Scientific career
Fields	Theoretical physics
Doctoral advisor	Henry Norris Russell
Doctoral students	John Richard Gott Bruce Elmegreen George B. Field J. Beverley Oke Trinh Xuan Thuan

Early life and education

Spitzer was born to a Presbyterian family in Toledo, Ohio, the son of Lyman Spitzer Sr. and Blanche Carey (née Brumback). Through his paternal grandmother, he was related to inventor Eli Whitney.[6] Spitzer graduated from Scott High School. He then attended Phillips Academy in 1929 and went on to Yale College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1935 and was a member of Skull and Bones. During a year of study at Cambridge University, he was influenced by Arthur Eddington and the young Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Returning to the U.S., Spitzer received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1938 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "The spectra of late supergiant stars", under the direction of Henry Norris Russell.[7][8][9]

Mountaineering

In 1965, Spitzer and Donald Morton became the first to climb Mount Thor 1,675 m (5,495 ft), located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada.[2]^: 347 As a member of the American Alpine Club, Spitzer established the "Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Climbing Award" (Now called the "Cutting Edge Grant") which gives $12,000 to several mountain climbing expeditions annually.[10]

Science

Spitzer's brief time as a faculty member at Yale was interrupted by his wartime work on the development of sonar. In 1947, at the age of 33, he succeeded Russell as director of Princeton University Observatory, an institution that, virtually jointly with his contemporary and friend Martin Schwarzschild, he continued to head until 1979.

Spitzer's research centered on the interstellar medium, to which he brought a deep understanding of plasma physics. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was among the first to recognize star formation as an ongoing contemporary process. His monographs, "Diffuse Matter in Space" (1968) and "Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium" (1978) consolidated decades of work, and themselves became the standard texts for some decades more.

Spitzer was the founding director of Project Matterhorn, Princeton University's pioneering program in controlled thermonuclear research, renamed in 1961 as Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He was an early proponent of space optical astronomy in general, and in particular of the project that became Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1981, Spitzer became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[11]

Death

Spitzer died suddenly on March 31, 1997, after completing a regular day of work at Princeton University. He was buried at Princeton Cemetery and was survived by wife Doreen Canaday Spitzer, four children, and ten grandchildren. Among Spitzer's four children is neurobiologist Nicholas C. Spitzer, who is currently the professor and vice chair in neurobiology at UC San Diego.

Honors

Awards

• Fellow of the American Physical Society (1941) [12]
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1953)[13]
• Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1953)[14]
• Bruce Medal (1973)[15]
• Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1974)
• James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics (1975)
• Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1978)[16]
• National Medal of Science (1979)
• Franklin Medal (1980)
• Prix Jules Janssen of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) (1980)
• Crafoord Prize (1985)

Named after him

• Asteroid 2160 Spitzer
• Spitzer Space Telescope
• Lyman Spitzer Library in Davenport College, Yale University
• Lyman Spitzer Building at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ
• Lyman Spitzer Planetarium at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, VT
• Answer to the final question on NTN Buzztime's Showdown on September 16, 2008.
• Spitzer Building in Toledo, Ohio.
• Landau-Spitzer Award (American Physical Society) [17]

References

External links

• NASA biography
• Papers by Lyman Spitzer at the Princeton University Library
• Oral history interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 8 April 1977, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Oral History interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 15 March 1978, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Oral history interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 10 May 1978, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Oral History interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 27 November 1991, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
• Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences

На других языках

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[de] Lyman Spitzer

Lyman Spitzer, Jr. (* 26. Juni 1914 in Toledo (Ohio); † 31. März 1997 in Princeton (New Jersey)) war ein amerikanischer Astrophysiker. Er leistete wichtige Beiträge zur theoretischen Astrophysik und Plasmaphysik und war eine treibende Kraft in der Entwicklung von Weltraumteleskopen.

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- [en] Lyman Spitzer

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[es] Lyman Spitzer Jr.

Lyman Spitzer (Toledo, Ohio, 26 de junio de 1914-Princeton, Nueva Jersey, 31 de marzo de 1997) fue un físico teórico estadounidense.

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[it] Lyman Spitzer

Lyman Spitzer (Toledo, 26 giugno 1914 – Princeton, 31 marzo 1997) è stato un fisico e astronomo statunitense conosciuto per le proprie ricerche nel processo di formazione delle stelle, ma soprattutto per aver proposto l'utilizzo di telescopi spaziali nella ricerca astronomica.

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[ru] Спитцер, Лайман

Лайман Спи́тцер (англ. Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr.; 26 июня 1914, Толидо, Огайо, США — 31 марта 1997, Принстон, Нью-Джерси, США) — американский астрофизик, известный своими работами, посвящённым формированию звёзд, физике межзвёздной среды и звёздных атмосфер, физике плазмы.

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