The Bruce Medalists: Otto Heckmann

<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> <base target ="new"> <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td width = 33%> </td><td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="heckmann.jpg"><img src="heckmannSml.jpg" alt="" height="120" width="91" border="2"></a><td height="middle"><font size="-2">Photo Hamburger Sternwarte, courtesy Prof. H. J. Wendker</font></td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann</font></b></font></A></td> <tr><td width = "33%"><b>23 June 1901</b></td> <td align="center" width="34%"><b>1964 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align=right><b>13 May 1983</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Otto Heckmann received his Ph.D. at the <b><a href="http://www.verwaltung.uni-bonn.de/en/The_University.html">University of Bonn</a></b>, worked at the <b><a href="http://www.uni-sw.gwdg.de/">University of Göttingen</a></b> from 1927-41, and directed the <b><a href="http://www.friedensblitz.de/sterne/Index.html">Hamburg Observatory</a></b> from 1941-62, after which he became the first director of the <b><a href="http://www.hq.eso.org/eso-homepage.html">European Southern Observatory</a></b> in Chile. He and his colleagues determined positions of the faint members of the Praesepe cluster and refined the H-R diagrams of several clusters. He organized the international effort to produce a third Astronomische Gesellschaft catalog to show proper motions of 180,000 stars. At Hamburg he oversaw the installation of a large Schmidt telescope. Heckmann also made significant contributions to cosmology: he found open and flat solutions to the Einstein field equations for a homogeneous, isotropic universe, and he introduced the possibility of a rotating universe. His book on cosmology rigorously developed the consequences of general relativity.</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Petrie, R.M., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1964PASP...76..135P"><i>PASP</i> <b>76</b>, 135 (1964)</a>. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> Association pour le Développement International de l’Observatoire de Nice, <a href="http://www.obs-nice.fr/adion/medaille.html">ADION medal</a>, 1966<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nasaward.nsf/0a87c615e9bb822d85256a33005743a6/9e3346eb71d7756d85256a490066b51a?OpenDocument">James Craig Watson Medal</a>, 1961.<br> <a href="http://www.academie-sciences.fr/presentation/historique_gb.htm">Paris Academy of Sciences</a>, Janssen Medal, 1964.<br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.ari.uni-heidelberg.de/AG/ag0homee.html">Astronomische Gesellschaft</a>, President, 1952-56.<br> <a href="http://www.iau.org">International Astronomical Union</a>, President, 1967-70.<br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Hentschel, Klaus & Monika Renneberg: “Eine akademische Karriere. Der Astronom Otto Heckmann im Dritten Reich,” <i>Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte</i> <b>43</b>, 581-610 (1995). </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> Behr, A., <i>ESO Messenger</i> No. 33, p. 1 (1983).<br> Fehrenbach, C., <i>Compte Rendue Acad. Sci., Sér. Gén, Vie Scie.</i> <b>1</b>, 6, 591-93 (1984).<br> Fricke, W., <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1984QJRAS..25..374F"><i>QJRAS</i> 25, 374-76 (1984)</a></a>.<br> Treder, H.J., <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1984AN....305..150T"><i>Astron. Nachr.</i> <b>305</b>, 150 (1984)</a> [in German].<br> Voigt, H.H., <a href="http://www.hs.uni-hamburg.de/DE/Ins/Per/Kuehl/FHS/Heckmann.html"><i>Mitteilungen der Astronomischen Gesellschaft</i> <b>60</b> (1983)</a> [in German].<br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_h.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Photos</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.friedensblitz.de/sterne/nachkrieg/eso.html">History of Hamburg Observatory</a><br> <a href="http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/~heck/o_heckmann.jpg">Hamburg Observatory, courtesy André Heck</a> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#H">Minor Planet #1650 Heckmann</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="HeckmannRefs.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></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">2007-09-04</a></td></font> </tr> </table></body>