The Bruce Medalists: Lyman Spitzer

<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%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" > <tr><td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="spitzer.jpg"><img src="spitzerSml.jpg" alt="" height=120 width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo courtesy American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library</font></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Lyman Spitzer,Jr.</font></b></font></td> <tr><td><b>26 June 1914</b></td> <td align="center"><b>1973 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b>31 March 1997</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Lyman Spitzer, Jr. studied at <b><a href="http://www.astro.yale.edu/department/history/1882-to-1931">Yale</a></b> and <b><a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/univ/history/index.html">Cambridge</a></b> Universities and earned his Ph.D. under <b><a href="../Russell/index.html">Henry Norris Russell</a></b> at <b><a href="http://mondrian.Princeton.EDU:80/CampusWWW/Companion/astrophysical_sciences_department.html">Princeton University</a></b>. Following research at <b><a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/hco/index.html">Harvard</a></b>, teaching at Yale, and war work in New York, he succeeded Russell as professor and observatory director at Princeton in 1947. He promptly hired <b><a href="../Schwarzschild/index.html">Martin Schwarzschild</a></b>, and the two built a major research department. Spitzer worked in many areas of theoretical astrophysics, including spectral line formation, the dynamical evolution of star clusters, and star formation. His most important work was on the physics of the interstellar medium. He showed that there must be at least two phases—high temperature clouds around hot stars and cooler intercloud regions. He led in studies of interstellar dust grains and magnetic fields. He was the first to propose a <b><a href="http://hubblesite.org/reference_desk/facts_.and._figures/lyman_spitzer/index.shtml">large telescope in space</a></b> (in 1946), and he was analyzing data from the <b><a href="http://www.stsci.edu/hst/">Hubble Space Telescope</a></b> the day he died. He led the development and operation of the ultraviolet astronomy satellite <i><b><a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/copernicus/">Copernicus</a></b></i>. An early leader in attempts to harness controlled thermonuclear fusion on earth, he was the founder and first director of the <b><a href="http://www.pppl.gov/about/history"> Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory</a></b> (originally called Project Matterhorn). He wrote several important books. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Weymann, Ray J., <i>Mercury</i> <b>2</b>, 4, 4-6 (1973).</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://aas.org/prizes/henry_norris_russell_lectureship">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1953.<br> American Philosophical Society, <a href="http://www.amphilsoc.org/prizes/">Benjamin Franklin Medal</a>, 1991.<br> American Physical Society, <a href="http://www.aps.org/programs/honors/prizes/maxwell.cfm">James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics</a>, 1975.<br> Astronomische Gesellschaft, <a href="http://www.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/en/auszeichnungen/schwarzschild">Karl Schwarzschild Medal</a>, 1975.<br> Franklin Institute, David Rittenhouse Medal, 1957; <a href="http://www.fi.edu/winners/detail.faw?winner_id=3976">Benjamin Franklin Medal</a>, 1980.<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html">Henry Draper Medal</a>, 1974.<br> <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=337">National Medal of Science</a>, 1979.<br> National Radio Astronomy Observatory, <a href="http://www.nrao.edu/jansky/janskyprize.shtml">Jansky Prize</a>, 1974.<br> Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="https://www.ras.org.uk/awards-and-grants/awards/268">Gold medal</a>, 1978, presented by A.H. Cook, <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/seri/QJRAS/0020//0000001.000.html"><i>QJRAS</i> <b>20</b>, 1-2 (1978)</a>.<br> Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www.kva.se/en/Prizes/Crafoord-Prize/">Crafoord prize</a>, 1985.<br> Société Astronomique de France, Janssen Prize, 1980. </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://aas.org/">American Astronomical Society</a>, President, 1960-62.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/copernicus/spitzer.html">Copernicus mission archives</a><br> <a href="http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/groundup/lesson/bios/spitzer/">Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute</a><br> Morton, Donald C., “Lyman Spitzer: Astronomer, Physicist, Engineer, and Mountaineer,” in L. Armus & W.T. Reach, <i>The Spitzer Space Telescope: New Views of the Cosmos ASP Conference Series, Volume 357, proceedings of the conference held 9-12 November, 2004 in Pasadena, California, USA</i> (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2006), pp. 1-6.<br> Spitzer, Lyman, Jr., “Dreams, Stars, and Electrons, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989ARA%26A..27....1S"><i>Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.</i> <b>27</b>, 1-17 (1989)</a>.<br> <a href="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/info/241-Lyman-Spitzer-Jr-">Spitzer Space Telescope</a></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> Bahcall, John N. & Jeremiah P. Ostriker, <a href="http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jnb/Papers/Popular/Spitzer/spitzer.html"><i>Physics Today</i> <b>50</b>, 10, 123-24 (1997)</a>.<br> Dressler, Alan, “Four Stars of the Cosmos (<a href="../Schwarzschild/index.html">Martin Schwarzschild</a>, Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Lyman Spitzer Jr., Clyde W. Tombaugh), <i>The New York Times Magazine</i> Jan 4, 1998, p 44 col 2.<br> Field, George B., <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/316135"><i>PASP</i> <b>110</b>, 215-22 (1998)</a>.<br> Field, George B. & John N. Bahcall, <i>Nature</i> <b>387</b>, 244 (1997).<br> Hazeltine, R.D., <a href="http://solarnews.nso.edu/1997/041697.html#1"><i>Solar News,</i> 16 April 1997</a>.<br> King, Ivan R., <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1997BAAS...29.1489K"><i>Bull. Am. Astron. Soc.</i> <b>29</b>, 1489-91 (1997)</a>.<br> Mestel, Leon, <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1997BASI...25..281."><i>Bull. Astr. Soc. India</i> <b>25</b>, 281-83 (1997)</a>.<br> <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/97/q2/0401sptz.html">Princeton University</a>.<br> <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/copernicus/spitzer.html">Copernicus Mission Archive</a>.<br> <b><a href="http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~pbrosche/persons/obit/obit_si.html">More obituaries</a></b> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Portraits</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://photos.aip.org">AIP Center for History of Physics</a> (many)<br> <a href="http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jnb/Papers/Popular/Spitzer/spitzer.html">Institute for Advanced Study</a><br> <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/spitzer,lyman/spitzer-Med.jpg">Princeton University</a> (<a href="http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pictures/s-z/spitzer,lyman/spitzer-HI.jpg">large version</a>)<br> <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/astro/people/1949/">Princeton University: Astrophysics Faculty in 1949</a></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/">Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF)</a><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#S">Minor Planet #2160 Spitzer</a><br> <a href="http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2011/06/building_is_good_as_gold_princ.html">Lyman Spitzer Building at PPPL </a><br> <a href="http://www.americanalpineclub.org/grants/g/7/Lyman-Spitzer-Cutting-Edge-Climbing-Award>American Alpine Club Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Award</a></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="SpitzerRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <div align="center"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></div> <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">2013-02-04</a></font></td> </tr> </table> </p> </body>