The Bruce Medalists: Albert Whitford

<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="whitford.jpg"><img src="whitfordSml.jpg" alt="" height=126 width="91" border="2"></a></td><td height=middle><font size=1>Photo 1986, courtesy Lick Observatory</font></td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan=3 align=center><font size=5><b><font color="#CC6600">Albert Edward Whitford</font></b></font></td> <tr><td width="33%"><b>22 October 1905</b></td> <td align=center width="34%"><b>1996 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align=right><b>28 March 2002</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>A 1921 graduate of <b><a href="http://www.miltoncollege.org/hist01.htm">Milton College</a></b> in Milton, Wisconsin, Albert Whitford was a graduate student in physics at the <b><a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/welcome/odyssey/History/index.html">University of Wisconsin</a></b> when he found a job as assistant to astronomy professor <b><a href="../Stebbins/index.html">Joel Stebbins</a></b>. As Whitford described it, One thing led to another: I made a successful device for measuring very small currents from photoelectric cells, with which he was measuring the light from stars and galaxies, and it brought me to <b><a href="http://www.mtwilson.edu/">Mt. Wilson Observatory</a></b> helping him, and finally I became an astronomer without ever starting out to study it at all. Whitford became an expert in photoelectric photometry, which he steadily improved, using vacuum-tube amplification and mounting photoelectric cells in a vacuum tank. Stebbins and Whitford used the new technology to measure the brightnesses of stars and galaxies and their spectra, making most of their observations at Mt. Wilson. Whitford returned to the University of Wisconsin in 1935 and, after work on radar at MIT during World War II, succeeded Stebbins as director of the <b><a href="http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~varda/Long_Wash_Obs_Text.html">Washburn Observatory</a></b> in 1948. He and Stebbins continued to improve photoelectric photometry and extended it into the infrared. Whitford was appointed director of the <b><a href="http://www.ucolick.org/~mountain/mthamilton/public/history/">Lick Observatory</a></b> in 1958. There he put the Shane 3-m telescope into operation, moved the observatory headquarters to the campus of the <b><a href="http://www.ucsc.edu/about/campus_overview.asp">University of California, Santa Cruz</a></b>, and began a study of stars near the galactic center. Whitford held many major administrative positions and chaired the committee that produced the first <b><a href="http://www.aip.org/pt/vol-53/iss-7/p45.html">decennial volume of the astronomy communitys priorities for new instruments</a></b>. He continued his research at UCSC into his nineties. In 1996 he returned to Madison, where he renewed an affiliation with the University of Wisconsin. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> <i>Mercury</i> 13, 187 (1996).</p> <p> <b><font size="+1" color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></b><br> American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.html">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1986.<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, 1967-70.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Dombrowski, Edmmund, Sethanne Howard, & Don Barry, Profiles in Astronomy: Albert Whitford, <a href="http://www.seds.org/pub/info/newsletters/ejasa/1989/jasa8909.txt"><i>The Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic</i> <b>1</b>, 2 (1989)</a>.<br> Rich, R.M & D.M. Terndrup, Bulges of Galaxies: A Celebration of the 90th Birthday of Albert Whitford, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1997PASP..109..571R"><i>PASP</i> <b>109</b>, 571 (1997)</a>.<br> <a href="../osterbrock/index.html">Osterbrock, Donald E.</a>, <a href="http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091837/html/336.html"><i>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences</i> <b>85</b>, 336-63 (2004)</a>.<br> Whitford, A.E., A Half-Century of Astronomy, <a href="http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.aa.24.090186.000245"><i>Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.</i> <b>24</b>, 1-22 (1986)</a>.<br> Whitford, A.E., <a href="http://press.ucsc.edu/archive/94-95/05-95/051895-Astronomer_and_form.html"><i>Directorship of Lick Observatory, 1958-1968</i></a> (University of California, Santa Cruz Library, 1995). </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> Code, Arthur D., <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2003PASP..115.1020C&db_key=AST&link_type=EJOURNAL"><i>PASP</i> <b>115</b>, 1020-22 (2003)</a>.<br> Hearnshaw, John, <a href="http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1468-4004.2002.43532.x"><i>Astronomy & Geophysics</i> <b>43</b>, 5.32-5.33 (2002)</a>.<br> Kraft, Robert P., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=2002BAAS...34.1387K"><i>Bull. Am. Astron. Soc.</i> <b>34</b>, 1387-90 (2002)</a>.<br> <i>Los Angeles Times,</i> 4 April 2002.<br> <a href="../Osterbrock/index.html">Osterbrock, Donald E.</a>, <a href="http://www.aip.org/pt/sso_login.jsp?from=www.physicstoday.org&jsessionid=3200871042747502715"><i>Physics Today</i> <b>56</b>, 1, 67-68 (2003)</a>.<br> Seals, Brian, <a href="http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2002/April/03/local/stories/12local.htm"><i>Santa Cruz Sentinel,</i> 3 April 2002</a><br> <a href="http://www.ucsc.edu/news_events/press_releases/01-02/04-02.whitford.html">University of California, Santa Cruz</a><br> <a href="http://www.news.wisc.edu/view.html?get=7302">University of Wisconsin, Madison</a><br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_w.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/Whitford,__Albert_Edward.html">AIP Center for History of Physics</a> (3 photos)<br> <a href="http://www.ctio.noao.edu/~nick/fastronomer/fastronomer.html">Olin Eggen Pictures of Astronomers Collection</a> (with Stebbins and others)<br> </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#W">Minor planet #2301 Whitford</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="WhitfordRefs.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">2005-05-17</a></td></font> </tr> </table></body>