The Bruce Medalists: Paul Merrill

<body bgcolor=#9CCEFF> <font size=8><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="merrill.jpg"><img src="merrillSml.jpg" alt="" height=122 width="91" border="2"></a><td height=middle><font size=1>Photo courtesy Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington</font></td> <td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan=3 align=center><font size=5><b><font color="#CC6600">Paul Willard Merrill</font></b></font></td> <tr><td width = 33%><b>15 August 1887</b></td> <td align=center width=34%><b>1946 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align=right><b>19 July 1961</b></td> </tr> </table> <p> Paul Merrill received his A.B. at <b><a href="http://www.stanford.edu/dept/physics/history/index.html">Stanford University</a></b> and his Ph.D. in 1913 at the <b><a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/">University of California</a></b>. After three years each at the <b><a href="http://www.detroitobservatory.umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a></b> and the <b><a href="http://www.100.nist.gov/">National Bureau of Standards</a></b> he joined the staff of the <b><a href="http://www.mtwilson.edu/">Mt. Wilson Observatory</a></b>, where he remained until retirement in 1952. He was a spectroscopist who studied peculiar stars, especially long-period variables. He also investigated the interstellar medium and performed pioneer spectral research in the infrared. His greatest discovery came shortly before retirement, when he identified lines of technetium in R Andromedae and other S-type stars. Since this element has no stable isotopes, Merrills discovery is taken as evidence for its recent production in the star, and thus for the existence of the<i> s</i>-process of nucleosynthesis.</p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></fONT></b><br> Neubauwer, F.J., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1946PASP...58...81N"><i>PASP</i> <b>58</b>, 81-85 (1946)</a>.</p> <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>, 1955.<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nasaward.nsf/urllinks/NAS-58N2BX?OpenDocument">Henry Draper Medal</a>, 1945.<br></p> <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, 1956-58.<br> <a href="http://www.astrosociety.org/">Astronomical Society of the Pacific</a>, President, 1927.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="../Wilson/index.html">Wilson, O.C.</a>, <i>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science</i> <b>37</b>, 237-66 (1964) </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></fONT></b><br> <br> <a href="../Joy/index.html">Joy, A.H.</a>, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1962PASP...74...41J"><i>PASP</i> <b>74</b>, 41-43 (1962)</a>.<br> <a href="../Joy/index.html">Joy, Alfred H.</a>, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=1962QJRAS...3...45."><i>QJRAS</i> <b>3</b>, 45-47 (1962)</a>.<br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_m.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Photos</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.aip.org/history/esva/catalog/esva/Merrill_Willard.html">AIP Center for History of Physics</a> <br> <a href="http://archives.caltech.edu/photoNet.html" >Caltech Archives</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></fONT></b><br> <a href="http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/">Lunar crater Merrill</a><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html">Minor Planet #11768 Merrill</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="MerrillRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <p> <center><b><a href="../index.html" target="_top">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">2008-01-25</a></td></font> </tr> </table></body>