The Bruce Medalists: Bengt Stromgren

<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="stromgren.jpg"><img src="stromgrenSml.jpg" alt="" height="120" width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width="33%" valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo c. 1975, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters</font></td> <td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren</font></b></font></td></tr> <tr><td><b>21 January 1908</b></td> <td align="center"><b>1959 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b>4 July 1987</b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Bengt Strömgren, the son of the director of the <b><a href="http://www.astro.ku.dk/history.html">Copenhagen University Observatory</a></b>, had published many research papers—mostly in celestial mechanics— and coauthored one book by the time he received his Ph.D. from the University of Copenhagen at age 21. After working there and at the <a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/vtour/history/"><b>Yerkes Observatory</b></a> he succeeded his father at Copenhagen in 1940. He was director of Yerkes and <b><a href="http://www.as.utexas.edu/mcdonald/mcdonald.html">McDonald</a></b> Observatories from 1951 to 1957 and spent ten years at the <b><a href="http://www.ias.edu/about/mission-and-history/">Institute for Advanced Study</a></b> in Princeton before returning to Copenhagen University and the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (<b><a href="http://www.nordita.org/institute/history/index.php">NORDITA</a></b>). Strömgren did important research in stellar structure in the 1930s, but he is best known for his theory of the ionized gas clouds around hot stars. He found relations between the gas density, the luminosity of the star, and the size of the “Strömgren sphere” of ionized hydrogen around it. He surveyed such H II regions in the Galaxy, and he also did important work on stellar atmospheres and ionization in stars. He calculated the relative abundances of the elements in the sun and other stars and worked on optical design and, for many years, on the development of photoelectric photometry.</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> Mayall, N.U., <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1959PASP...71...79M"><i>PASP</i> <b>71</b>, 79 (1959)</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>, 1965.<br> Association pour le Développement International de lObservatoire de Nice, <a href="http://www.obs-nice.fr/adion/medaille.html">ADION medal</a>, 1965<br> Astronomische Gesellschaft, <a href="http://www.astronomische-gesellschaft.de/en/auszeichnungen/schwarzschild">Karl Schwarzschild Medal</a>, 1969.<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>, 1962, presented by W.H. McRae, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1962QJRAS...3...81."><i>QJRAS</i> <b>3</b>, 81-83 (1962)</a>.<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, 1966-67.<br> <a href="http://www.iau.org/">International Astronomical Union</a>, President, 1970-73; General Secretary, 1948-52.<br> </p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Cayrel, Roger, “La vie et l’oevre de Bengt Strömgren,” <i>Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences: La Vie des Sciences</i> <b>6</b>, 609-610 (1989).<br> Pedersen, Olaf, <a href="http://www.um.dk/publikationer/UM/English/Denmark/kap3/3-9-7.asp#stroemgren">Denmark - Conditions of Life - Research</a>.<br> Rebsdorf, Simon Olling, “Bengt Strömgren: Growing Up With Astronomy, 1908–1932,” <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003JHA....34..171R"><i>Journal for the History of Astronomy</i> <b>34</b>, 171-99 (2003)</a>.<br> Rebsdorf, Simon Olling, <i>The Father, the Son, and the Stars: Bengt Strömgren and the History of Twentieth Century Astronomy in Denmark and in the USA</i> (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aarhus, August 2004. <a href="http://www.ivh.au.dk/personale/simon_olling_rebsdorf/index.html">Table of Contents</a>).<br> Rebsdorf, Simon Olling, “Bengt Strömgren: Interstellar Glow, Helium Content, and Solar Life Supply, 1932–1940,” <a href="http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/117996106/abstract"><i>Centaurus</i> <b>49</b>, 56-79 (2007)</a>.<br> Rebsdorf, Simon Olling, Bengt Strömgren’s life among the stars, <a href="http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/www/bengt/stromgren/">Niels Bohr Institute website</a>.<br> Strömgren, B., “Scientists I have Known and Some Astronomical Problems I Have Met,” <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1983ARA%26A..21....1S"><i>Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.</i> <b>21</b>, 1-11 (1983)</a></a>.<br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Obituaries</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="../spitzer/index.html">Spitzer, Lyman, Jr.</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2811365"><i>Physics Today</i> <b>41</b>, no. 3, 112, 114 (1988)</a>.<br> Rudkjobing, M., <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1988QJRAS..29..282R"><i>QJRAS</i> <b>29</b>, 282 (1988)</a>.<br> <i>Sky & Telescope</i> <b>74</b>, 348 (1987).<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> </P> <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(cph+3f05797))">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. New York World-Telegram and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection</a> (<a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=1570649">reproduced in higher resolution by Wikimedia</a>)<br> <a href="http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/About-Denmark/The-Danes/Great-Danes/Scientists/Bengt-Strmgren/">Official website of Denmark</a><br> <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#B">Minor planet #1846 Bengt</a><br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Str%C3%B6mgren_sphere">Strömgren Sphere</a> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="StromgrenRefs.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></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">2012-05-19</a></font></td> </tr> </table> </p> </body>