The Bruce Medalists: Walter S. Adams

<body bgcolor=#9CCEFF> <font size="+5"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main"><font color="#CC6600">The Bruce Medalists</font></a></b></font> <p>   </p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td width ="33%"> </td> <td width ="34%" align="center"><a href="adams.jpg"><img src="adamsSml.jpg" alt="photo" height=113 width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width ="33%" valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo courtesy Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago</font></td> </tr> <tr><td width ="33%" colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Walter Sydney Adams</font></b></font></td></tr> <tr><td width ="33%"><b>20 December 1876</b></td> <td width ="34%" align="center"><b>1928 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td width ="33%" align="right"><b>11 May 1956</b></td> </tr> </table> <p> Walter Adams was born in Syria, the son of American missionaries. He followed his <b><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/about/history.html" >Dartmouth</a></b> professor, <b><a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/virtualmuseum/Frost.html">Edwin B. Frost</a></b>, to <b><a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/virtualmuseum/" >Yerkes Observatory</a></b>, and accompanied his Yerkes director, <b><a href="../Hale/index.html" >George Ellery Hale</a></b>, to <b><a href="http://www.mtwilson.edu/" >Mt. Wilson</a></b>, where Adams served as director from 1923 to 1946. His spectroscopic <b><a href="http://www.mtwilson.edu/his/art/g1a2.htm">studies of the sun</a></b> and stars led to the discovery, with Arnold Kohlschütter, of a spectroscopic method for determining stellar distances: they showed that the relative intensities of spectral lines could be used to determine absolute magnitudes of both giant and main sequence stars. He worked with Hale on the discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and he used photography to measure the differential rotation of the sun. He shared with <b><a href="http://fdncenter.org/grantmaker/fundastro/about.html">Theodore Dunham, Jr.</a></b> in the discoveries of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venus and the molecules CN and CH in interstellar gas clouds. Adams identified Sirius B as the first white dwarf star known, and his measurement of its gravitational redshift was taken as confirming evidence for the general theory of relativity. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="../Merrill/index.html" >Merrill, Paul W.</a>, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1928PASP...40....2M&db_key=AST&page=2&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF" ><i>PASP</i> <b>40</b>, 2-10 (1928).</a> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></fONT></b><br> American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.html">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1947.<br> <a href="http://www.academie-sciences.fr/">French Academy of Sciences</a>, Janssen Medal, 1935.<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_draper">Henry Draper Medal</a>, 1918.<br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.ras.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244&Itemid=104">Gold medal</a>, 1917, presented by R.A. Sampson, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1917MNRAS..77..395."><i>MNRAS</i> <b>77</b>, 395-410 (1917</a>)<br> <a href="http://www2.iap.fr/saf/">Société Astronomique de France</a>, Janssen Prize, 1926. </p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.aas.org/">American Astronomical Society</a>, President, 1931-34.<br> <a href="http://www.astrosociety.org/">Astronomical Society of the Pacific</a>, President, 1923.<br> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/a/adams.htm">American Philosophical Society</a><br> <a href="../Joy/index.html" >Joy, A.H.</a>, <i>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences</i> <b>31</b>, 1-31 (1958).<br> <a href="../Seares/index.html" >Seares, F.H.</a>, “Retirement of Dr. Walter S. Adams,” <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1945PASP...57..296S" ><i>PASP</i> <b>57</b>, 296-301 (1945)</a>.<br> Stratton, F.J.M., <a href="http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0080-4606%28195611%292%3C1%3AWSA1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H"><i>Biographical Memoirs of the Royal Society</i> <b>2</b>, 1-18 (1956)</a>.<br> Tenn, Joseph S., “Walter S. Adams: The Twenty-Third Bruce Medalist,” <a href="AdamsBio.pdf"><cite>Mercury</cite>&nbsp <strong> 23</strong>, 2, 20 (1994).</a><br> Tenn, Joseph S., <i>Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers</i> (Springer, NY, forthcoming).<br> Wright, Helen, <i>Dictionary of Scientific Biography </i> <b>1</b>, 54-58 (1970-80).</p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="../Joy/index.html" >Joy, A.H.</a>, “Walter Sydney Adams, 1876-1956,” <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1956PASP...68..285J" > <i>PASP</i> <b>68</b>, 285-95 (1956)</a>.<br> <a href="../Merrill/index.html" >Merrill, Paul W.</a>, <i>Year Book of the American Philosophical Society 1956</i>, pp. 103-105.<br> <a href="../Merrill/index.html" >Merrill, Paul W.</a>, “Walter S. Adams, Observer of Sun and Stars,” <i>Science </i><b>124</b>, 67 (1956).<br> <a href="../Merrill/index.html" >Merrill, Paul W.</a>, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?journal=MNRAS&year=1957&volume=.117&letter=.&db_key=AST&page_ind=247&plate_select=NO&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_GIF"><i>MNRAS</i> <b>117</b>, 243-44 (1957)</a><br> <a href="../Shapley/index.html">Shapley, Harlow</a>, “A Master of Stellar Spectra,” <i>Sky & Telescope</i> <b>15</b>, 401 (1956).<br> Stratton, F.J.M., “Walter S. Adams, 1876-1956,” <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1956Obs....76..139S"><i>Observatory</i> <b>76</b>, 139-140 (1956)</a>.<br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_a.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Portraits</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.aip.org/history/esva/catalog/esva/Adams_Sidney.html">AIP Center for History of Physics</a><br><a href="http://archives.caltech.edu/photoNet.cfm">Caltech Archives</a><br> <a href="http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/cf/by_name_display_results.cfm?scientist=Adams,%20Walter%20Sydney">Dibner Library</a></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/alpha/alphA.html">Lunar crater Adams</a> (with <a href="http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Adams.html">John Couch Adams</a> and <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1951PASP...63..283A">Charles H. Adams</a>)<br> <a href="http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/alpha/alphA.html">Mars Crater Adams</a><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#A">Minor Planet #3145 Walter Adams</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="AdamsRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <p> <center><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></center> </p> <p> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP"><font size="-1">Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a><br></font></td> <td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><font size="-1"><i> <a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a> </i><br> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">2006-03-02</a></font></td> </tr> </table></p> </body> </html>