Gisela Weiss (astronomer)

Gisela Weiss (also Gisela Weiss ; July 14, 1891 in Vienna - June 12, 1975 there ) was an Austrian astronomer . She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in astronomy in Austria .

Life

Gisela Weiss came from a Jewish industrial family. Her father Leo Weiß was the founder and owner of several wood and iron works in Klosterneuburg . She attended an upper secondary school for girls in Vienna and in 1912 passed the high school diploma in Rahlgasse . At the time, it was the only school that gave girls access to university studies. Then she studied mathematics , physics and astronomy . Her dissertation dealt with the determination of the orbit of a small planet , namely the asteroid (193) Ambrosia . Determining the orbit of minor planets was a focus of work for the astronomers at the Vienna observatory .

The reviewers were Josef von Hepperger (1855–1928) and Samuel Oppenheim (1857–1928). Her doctorate was on June 28, 1917.

After her studies, Gisela Weiss probably worked in her father's company. Private civil servant and authorized signatory are specified as occupations . She married in 1920, but resumed her maiden name after the divorce. She emigrated during the war and had Israeli citizenship from 1950. Nevertheless she lived again in Vienna. She died there on June 12, 1975 and was buried in the family grave at the Klosterneuburg Jewish cemetery .

literature

• Anneliese Schnell : Wanted: Dr. Gisela Weiss . In: Astronomisches Büro Wien (ed.): Der Sternenbote. Austrian monthly astronomical journal. ISSN  0039-1271 . 53rd year. tape 646 / 2010-5 . Vienna May 2010.
• Anneliese Schnell: Weiss, Gisela . In: Ilse Korotin , Nastasja Stupnicki (Hrsg.): Biographies of important Austrian scientists. Böhlau, Vienna 2018, ISBN 978-3-205-20588-3 , pp. 897-900 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anneliese Schnell: Weiss, Gisela . In: Ilse Korotin , Nastasja Stupnicki (Hrsg.): Biographies of important Austrian scientists . Böhlau, 2018, p. 897-900 .