Lyman sharpener

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Lyman sharpener

Lyman Spitzer, Jr. (born June 26, 1914 in Toledo (Ohio) , † March 31, 1997 in Princeton (New Jersey) ) was an American astrophysicist . He made important contributions to theoretical astrophysics and plasma physics and was a driving force in the development of space telescopes .

Live and act

Spitzer was born in Toledo, Ohio , in 1914, the son of a businessman. After studying at Yale University and the University of Cambridge , he attended Princeton University , where he received his doctorate in 1938 under Henry Norris Russell on a topic from the physics of stellar atmospheres. After a research stay at Harvard University , he went back to Yale University. During the Second World War he was involved in the development of sonar for anti-submarine combat.

In 1947 he became head of the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University, which he expanded together with Martin Schwarzschild as a leading research institution.

Spitzer is one of the originators of the idea of space telescopes . As early as 1946 he described the advantages of the lack of air turbulence and the accessibility of wide wavelength ranges . Later he played a central role in the realization of space telescopes such as OAO-3 (Copernicus) and the Hubble space telescope .

Spitzer conducted research in many areas of physics and astrophysics , especially interstellar matter physics , stellar dynamics , plasma physics and nuclear fusion . Spitzer found that interstellar matter consists of several phases of different temperatures and densities. The stellarator concept for experiments on controlled nuclear fusion goes back to Spitzer , developed in the Matterhorn project (nuclear fusion research in the forerunner of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory) at Princeton University in the 1950s.

In 1952 Spitzer was accepted into the National Academy of Sciences . In 1953 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1959 to the American Philosophical Society .

The American Philosophical Society awarded him their Benjamin Franklin Medal in 1991 .

Lyman Spitzer was a passionate alpinist and is also known for his first ascent of Mount Thor on Baffin Island .

Works (selection)

  • Physics of Fully Ionized Gases , 2nd Edition 1962 (New York: Interscience)
  • Diffuse Matter in Space , 1968 (New York: Interscience)
  • Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium , 1978 (New York: Wiley-Interscience)
  • Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters , 1987 (Princeton: Princeton University Press)

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member Directory: Lyman Spitzer, Jr. National Academy of Sciences, accessed December 9, 2015 (English, Biographical Memoir by Jeremiah P. Ostriker).
  2. ^ Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950-1999 ( [1] ). Retrieved September 23, 2015
  3. ↑ Member History: Lyman Spitzer. American Philosophical Society, accessed November 8, 2018 .
  4. ^ Donald C. Morton: Lyman Spitzer: Astronomer, Physicist, Engineer, and Mountaineer . In: L. Armus and W. T. Reach (eds.): The Spitzer Space Telescope: New Views of the Cosmos (= ASP Conference Series , Volume 357), Proceedings of the Conference Held November 9-12, 2004 in Pasadena, California, USA , 2006, pp. 1-6
personal data
SURNAME Spitzer, Lyman
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spitzer, Lyman Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American astronomer and physicist
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Toledo (Ohio)
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1997
Place of death Princeton, New Jersey