The Bruce Medalists: Joel Stebbins

<body bgcolor="#9CCEFF"> <base target ="new"> <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" border="0"> <tr><td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="stebbins.jpg"><img src="stebbinsSml.jpg" alt="Portrait" height="121" width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width="33%" valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo 1957, courtesy Mary Lea Shane Archives, Lick Observatory</font></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Joel Stebbins</font></b></font></td></tr> <tr><td width = "33%"><b>30 July 1878</b></td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><b>1941 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b>16 March 1966</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Born in Omaha, Joel Stebbins earned his B.S. at at the <b><a href="http://physics.unl.edu/history/history/departmenthistory.shtml">University of Nebraska</a></b>. After some graduate work there and at the <b><a href="http://www.wisc.edu/about/history/">University of Wisconsin</a></b>, he earned the third Ph.D. in astronomy granted by the <b><a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/about/history/">University of California</a></b>, where his advisor was Lick Observatory director <b><a href="../Campbell/index.html">W. Wallace Campbell</a></b>. Stebbins directed the <b><a href="http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/butowsky5/astro4h.htm">University of Illinois Observatory</a></b> from 1903 to 1922 and the University of Wisconsin’s <b><a href="http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~varda/Long_Wash_Obs_Text.html">Washburn Observatory</a></b> from 1922 to 1948, then spent another decade on research at the <b><a href="http://www.ucolick.org/~mountain/mthamilton/public/history/">Lick Observatory</a></b>. Starting in 1907 with selenium cells so insensitive they could barely detect the moon, Stebbins developed photoelectric photometry to the point where it succeeded photography as the photometric standard. He and his colleagues, especially <b><a href="../Whitford/index.html">Albert Whitford</a></b>, used the new technique to investigate eclipsing binaries, the reddening of starlight by interstellar dust, colors of galaxies, all kinds of variable stars, surface properties of the jovian satellites and Uranus, and the sun. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Shane, C.D., <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1941PASP...53....5S"><i>PASP</i> <b>53</b>, 5-11 (1941)</a>. </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></FONT></b><br> American Academy of Arts & Sciences, <a href="http://www.amacad.org/about/rumford.aspx">Rumford prize</a>, 1913.<br> American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://aas.org/prizes/henry_norris_russell_lectureship">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1956.<br> National Academy of Sciences, <a href="http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/awards/henry-draper-medal.html">Henry Draper Medal</a>, 1915.<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>, 1950, presented by W.M. Smart, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1950MNRAS.110..179."><i>MNRAS</i> <b>110</b>, 179-95 (1950)</a>.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Bitterman, Jay, <a href="http://www.lcas-astronomy.org/articles/display.php?filename=joel_stebbins&category=biographies">Lake County Astronomical Society</a><br> <a href="../Whitford/index.html">Whitford, A.E.</a>, <i>Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science</i> <b>49</b>, 293-316 (1978) [<a href="http://books.nap.edu/html/biomems/jstebbins.pdf">pdf</a>]. </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> <br> Kron, Gerald E., <a href="http://adsbit.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1966PASP...78..214K"><i>PASP</i> <b>78</b>, 214-222, (1966</a>) [<a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1966PASP...78..494.">errata</a>].<br> <a href="../Whitford/index.html">Whitford, A.E.</a>, <i>Sky & Telescope</i> <b>31</b>, 268 (1966).<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><br> <a href="http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~uias/gifs/observ/STEBBINS.GIF">University of Illinois Astronomical Society</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 Stebbins</a><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#S">Minor planet #2300 Stebbins</a><br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="StebbinsRefs.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> <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> </body>