Albert Whitford

Albert Edward Whitford (born October 22, 1905 in Milton , Wisconsin , † March 28, 2002 in Madison , Wisconsin) was an American astronomer.

Life

Whitford attended college in his hometown of Milton. As a student at the University of Wisconsin , he was assistant to Joel Stebbins with whom he began a long-term collaboration. In 1932 he earned his doctorate. From 1948 to 1958 he was Director of the Washburn Observatory of the University of Wisconsin and from 1958 to 1968 Director of the Lick Observatory , where under his direction the 3 m telescope was put into operation and whose headquarters he transferred to the University of California, Santa Cruz relocated. He later continued his research at the University of California, Santa Cruz and returned to the University of Wisconsin in 1996 in old age.

plant

Whitford was a pioneer of photoelectric photometry and improved its sensitivity significantly. Its reddening curve, which describes the dependence of the light absorption by interstellar dust on the wavelength, was important for determining the distribution of stars in the Milky Way . He also studied stars in the bulge of the Milky Way.

Honors

1954 member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1954 member of the National Academy of Sciences
1960 Jules Janssen Prize
1985 Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
1996 Bruce Medal

The asteroid (2301) Whitford is named after him.

Web links

A. Whitford publications in the Astrophysics Data System
Obituaries for A. Whitford in the Astrophysics Data System

Individual evidence

^ Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp. 186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on July 31, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “1965 WJ. Discovered 1965 Nov. 20 at the Goethe Link Observatory at Brooklyn, Indiana. ”

personal data
SURNAME	Whitford, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Whitford, Albert Edward (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH	October 22, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Milton , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH	March 28, 2002
Place of death	Madison , Wisconsin

[1] Lutz D. Schmadel : Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition. Ed .: Lutz D. Schmadel. 5th edition. Springer Verlag , Berlin , Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 978-3-540-29925-7 , pp. 186 (English, 992 pp., Link.springer.com [ONLINE; accessed on July 31, 2019] Original title: Dictionary of Minor Planet Names . First edition: Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg 1992): “1965 WJ. Discovered 1965 Nov. 20 at the Goethe Link Observatory at Brooklyn, Indiana. ”