Guido Münch
Guido Münch Paniagua (born June 9, 1921 in San Cristobal de las Casas , Mexico ; † April 29, 2020 in Pasadena , California ) was a Mexican astrophysicist and astronomer .
Münch studied civil engineering and mathematics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering and mathematics in 1939 and a master's degree in mathematics in 1943. He then went to the University of Chicago , where he received his doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics in 1946 (Problems of radiative transfer in the theory of stellar atmospheres). He then went to the Tacubaya Observatory of the University of Mexico, but returned in 1947 as an instructor at the University of Chicago, where he became an assistant professor in 1949. He was there at the Yerkes Observatory and worked with the astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar on radiative transport in stars. He also came to astronomical spectroscopy through contacts with Gerhard Herzberg and William Wilson Morgan . From 1951 he was at Caltech , where he became a professor and worked at Mount Wilson and Palomar Observatory. From 1977 to 1991 he was director at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg and there professor at the university. He worked at the German-Spanish Calar Alto Observatory and at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias ( University of La Laguna ) in Tenerife (1992 to 1996).
Münch dealt with the theory of stellar atmospheres, stellar spectroscopy, interstellar matter, spectroscopy of nebulae , structure of galaxies and solar physics and planetology . He worked both observationally and theoretically.
He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1962), the National Academy of Sciences (1967) and, since 1982, a founding member of the Third World Academy of Sciences . In 1968 he received the NASA Medal of Exceptional Scientific Merit for his participation in the Mariner, Viking and Pioneer missions (infrared radiometry). He was an honorary doctor of the Mexican National Institute for Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics. In 1989 he was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize . In 1944 and 1958 he was a Guggenheim Fellow. In 1998 he received the Spanish order Alfonso X, el sabio with a large cross. In 1989 the International Astronomical Union organized a conference in his honor in Granada.
James E. Gunn is one of his PhD students .
His son Christopher Münch (* 1962) is a filmmaker.
Fonts
- Interstellar Absorption Lines in Distant Stars , Astrophys. J., 1957
- The Theory of Model Stellar Model Atmospheres , in Jesse Greenstein Stellar Atmospheres , University of Chicago Press 1960
- An Analysis of the Spectrum of Mars , Astrophys. Journal, Volume 139, 1964
- Galactic Structure and Interstellar Absorption Lines , in Adriaan Blaauw, Maarten Schmidt Galactic Structure , University of Chicago Press, 1965
- with Laurence M. Trafton The Structure of the Atmosphere on the Major Planets , Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Volume 26, 1969, p. 813
- with Donald M. Hunten Helium Abundance on Jupiter , Space Science Reviews, Volume 14, 1973, pp. 433-443
Web links
- Biography for the Prince of Asturias Prize
- Biography on the part of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Münch, Guido |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Münch Paniagua, Guido (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Mexican astrophysicist and astronomer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 9, 1921 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Cristobal de las Casas , Mexico |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 29, 2020 |
| Place of death | Pasadena , California |