Lyman Spitzer

American astronomer (1914–1997)

Lyman Spitzer

Born|

Lyman Spitzer Jr.

(1914-06-26)June 26, 1914

Toledo, Ohio, United States

Died| March 31, 1997(1997-03-31) (aged 82)[1]

Princeton, New Jersey, US

Resting place| Princeton Cemetery
Alma mater| Princeton University (Ph.D.)
Yale University (B.A.)
Phillips Academy
Known for| Research in star formation and plasma physics
Promotion of space telescopes
Spouse| Doreen Canaday (1940)
Awards| Henry Draper Medal (1974)
James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics (1975)
National Medal of Science (1979)
Crafoord Prize (1985)
Scientific career
Fields| Theoretical physics
Doctoral advisor| Henry Norris Russell
Doctoral students| John Richard Gott
Bruce Elmegreen
George B. Field
J. Beverley Oke
Trinh Xuan Thuan

Lyman Spitzer Jr. (June 26, 1914 – March 31, 1997)[2] was an American theoretical physicist, astronomer and mountaineer. As a scientist, he carried out research into star formation and plasma physics and in 1946 conceived the idea of telescopes operating in outer space.[3] Spitzer invented the stellarator plasma device[4] and is the namesake of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. As a mountaineer, he made the first ascent of Mount Thor, with Donald C. Morton.[5]

## Early life and education

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Spitzer was born to a Presbyterian family in Toledo, Ohio, the son of Lyman Spitzer Sr. and Blanche Carey (née Brumback). Through his paternal grandmother, he was related to inventor Eli Whitney.[6] Spitzer graduated from Scott High School. He then attended Phillips Academy from 1929 to 1931 and went on to Yale College, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1935 and was a member of Skull and Bones. During a year of study at St John's College, Cambridge, he was influenced by Arthur Eddington and the young Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Returning to the U.S., Spitzer received his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1938 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "The spectra of late supergiant stars", under the direction of Henry Norris Russell.[7][8][9]

## Mountaineering

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In 1965, Spitzer and Donald Morton became the first to climb Mount Thor 1,675 m (5,495 ft), located in Auyuittuq National Park, on Baffin Island, Nunavut, Canada.[2]: 347 As a member of the American Alpine Club, Spitzer established the "Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Climbing Award" (Now called the "Cutting Edge Grant") which gives $12,000 to several mountain climbing expeditions annually.[10]

This image was made in July, 1967 on the Summit Ridge of Mt. Bertram Petrie in British Columbia, Canada by Charles Robert O'Dell during its first ascent.

## Science

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Spitzer's brief time as a faculty member at Yale was interrupted by his wartime work on the development of sonar. In 1947, at the age of 33, he succeeded Russell as director of Princeton University Observatory, an institution that, virtually jointly with his contemporary and friend Martin Schwarzschild, he continued to head until 1979.

Spitzer's research centered on the interstellar medium, to which he brought a deep understanding of plasma physics. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was among the first to recognize star formation as an ongoing contemporary process. His monographs, "Diffuse Matter in Space" (1968) and "Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium" (1978) consolidated decades of work, and themselves became the standard texts for some decades more.

Spitzer was the founding director of Project Matterhorn, Princeton University's pioneering program in controlled thermonuclear research, renamed in 1961 as Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He was an early proponent of space optical astronomy in general, and in particular of the project that became Hubble Space Telescope.

In 1981, Spitzer became a founding member of the World Cultural Council.[11]

## Death

[edit]

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Spitzer died suddenly on March 31, 1997, after completing a regular day of work at Princeton University.[2] He was buried at Princeton Cemetery and was survived by wife Doreen Canaday Spitzer (1914-2010), four children, and ten grandchildren. Among Spitzer's four children is neurobiologist Nicholas C. Spitzer, who is currently the professor and vice chair in neurobiology at UC San Diego.

## Honors

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Awards

* Fellow of the American Physical Society (1941) [12]
* Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1952)[13]
* Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1953)[14]
* Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1953)[15]
* Member of the American Philosophical Society (1959)[16]
* Bruce Medal (1973)[17]
* Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences (1974)
* James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics (1975)
* Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1978)[18]
* National Medal of Science (1979)
* Franklin Medal (1980)
* Prix Jules Janssen of the Société astronomique de France (French Astronomical Society) (1980)
* Crafoord Prize (1985)[19]

Named after him

* Asteroid 2160 Spitzer
* Spitzer Space Telescope
* Lyman Spitzer Library in Davenport College, Yale University
* Lyman Spitzer Building at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ
* Lyman Spitzer Planetarium at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium in St. Johnsbury, VT
* Answer to the final question on NTN Buzztime's Showdown on September 16, 2008.
* Spitzer Building in Toledo, Ohio.
* Landau-Spitzer Award (American Physical Society) [20]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Saxon, Wolfgang (2 April 1997). "Lyman Spitzer Jr. Dies at 82; Inspired Hubble Telescope". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 September 2020.
2. ^ a b c Ostriker, J. P. (2007). "Lyman Spitzer. 26 June 1914 -- 31 March 1997: Elected ForMemRS 1990". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 53: 339–348. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2007.0020. S2CID 70875907.: 339
3. ^ "Hubble Essentials: About Lyman Spitzer Jr". Hubble Site.
4. ^ Lyman Spitzer Jr. (1958). "The Stellarator Concept". The Physics of Fluids. 1 (4): 253. Bibcode:1958PhFl....1..253S. doi:10.1063/1.1705883. S2CID 11748652.
5. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Lyman Spitzer", MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
6. ^ Ancestry of Gov. Bill Richardson
7. ^ Current Biography Yearbook. H.W. Wilson. 1960. pp. 395–96.
8. ^ "Professor of Astronomy Lyman Spitzer Jr. Dies". Communications and Publications, Stanhope Hall, Princeton U. April 1, 1997.
9. ^ Spitzer, Lyman (1938). The spectra of late supergiant stars.
10. ^ Lyman Spitzer Cutting Edge Climbing Award
11. ^ "About Us". World Cultural Council. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
12. ^ "APS Fellow archive". APS. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
13. ^ "Lyman Spitzer, cons_suffix". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
14. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter S" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 15 April 2011.
15. ^ "Grants, Prizes and Awards". American Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 22 December 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
16. ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-12-07.
17. ^ "Past Winners of the Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal". Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
18. ^ "Winners of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society". Royal Astronomical Society. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2011.
19. ^ "Lyman Spitzer Jr". Crafoord Prize. 2022-08-22. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
20. ^ "Landau-Spitzer Award".

## External links

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* NASA biography
* Papers by Lyman Spitzer at the Princeton University Library
* Oral history interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 8 April 1977, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* Oral History interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 15 March 1978, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* Oral history interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 10 May 1978, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* Oral History interview transcript with Lyman Spitzer on 27 November 1991, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library and Archives
* Biographical Memoirs, National Academy of Sciences

* v
* t
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Founding members of the World Cultural Council

* Christian B. Anfinsen
* Werner Arber
* James Baddiley
* M. Balasegaram
* Frank Barnaby
* Christiaan Barnard
* Colin Blakemore
* Aage N. Bohr
* Norman Borlaug
* Harold G. Callan
* André Frédéric Cournand
* William J. Darby
* Eduardo de Robertis
* Cornelis de Jager
* Guy Blaudin de Thé
* Jean-François Denisse
* Venancio Deulofeu
* Frank J. Dixon
* Richard S. Doll
* Audouin Dollfus
* Jacques-Émile Dubois
* Gerald Durrell
* Francisco J. Dy
* John C. Eccles
* Paul Ehrlich
* Manfred Eigen
* Mohammed El Fasi
* Ernest L. Eliel
* Kenneth O. Emergy
* José Rafael Estrada
* Hans J. Eysenck
* Don W. Fawcett
* David J. Finney
* Val L. Fitch
* Carl G. Gahmberg
* Alfred D. Hershey
* Gerhard Herzberg
* David H. Hubel
* Osmo H. Järvi
* Reginald V. Jones
* Adrian Kantrowitz
* Nathan O. Kaplan
* Leo A. Kaprio
* Vassos Karageorghis
* Peter E. Kent
* Donald W. Kerst
* Seymour S. Kety
* Prem N. Kirpal
* Georges B. Koelle
* Walther Manshard
* Georges Mathé
* William D. McElroy
* Henry McIlwain
* John McMichael
* Jerrold Meinwald
* Harry Melville
* Desmond J. Morris
* Giuseppe Moruzzi
* Nevill F. Mott
* Vernon B. Mountcastle
* Robert S. Mulliken
* Walter H. Munk
* Ilie G. Murgulescu
* Jayant V. Narlikar
* Louis E. F. Néel
* Yuval Ne'eman
* Bernhard H. Neumann
* William A. Nierenberg
* Marshall W. Nirenberg
* George E. Palade
* Arthur B. Pardee
* David Phillips
* Jacques Piccard
* Jens J. Pindborg
* Comlan A. A. Quenum
* Hermann Rahn
* G. N. Ramachandran
* Gunnar Randers
* Chintamani N. R. Rao
* Rex Richards
* Jean Rösch
* Abraham J. A. Roux
* Stanley K. Runcorn
* Donald H. Sadler
* Hakim Muhammad Saeed
* Nobufusa Saito
* Abdus Salam
* Stuart J. Saunders
* Menahem Max Schiffer
* William G. Schneider
* Glenn T. Seaborg
* Ernest R. Sears
* Frederick Seitz
* Leonard T. Skeggs
* Stefan Ślopek
* George J. Smets
* George D. Snell
* Leonard Sosnowky
* Roger W. Sperry
* Lyman Spitzer
* Frederick Stewart
* Heikki Suomalainen
* Pol Swings
* Charles Tanford
* Henry Taube
* John M. Tedder
* Edward Teller
* Howard Temin
* Harold Thompson
* Peter C. Thonemann
* Phillip V. Tobias
* Alexander R. Todd
* Jan Peter Toennies
* Andrzej Trautman
* Jean L. F. Tricart
* Ioan Ursu
* Constantin Vago
* Eugene van Tamelen
* Ulf S. von Euler
* Alan Walsh
* William J. Whelan
* Karel F. Wiesner
* Rosalyn S. Yalow
* John Z. Young

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Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1990

Fellows|

* Roger Angel
* Michael Ashburner
* David Bohm
* David Brown
* Malcolm H. Chisholm
* Robin Clark
* Peter Clarricoats
* John G. Collier
* Simon Conway Morris
* Andrew Crawford
* Leslie Dutton
* Robert Fettiplace
* Erwin Gabathuler
* Nicholas C. Handy
* Allen Hill
* Jonathan Hodgkin
* Eric Jakeman
* George Jellicoe
* Louise Johnson
* Vaughan Jones
* Carole Jordan
* John Knott
* Harry Kroto
* Steven V. Ley
* Lew Mander
* Michael E. McIntyre
* Derek W. Moore
* Colin James Pennycuick
* John Albert Raven
* David Read
* Man Mohan Sharma
* Allan Snyder
* George Stark
* Azim Surani
* Bob Vaughan
* Herman Waldmann
* William Lionel Wilkinson
* Robert Hughes Williams
* Alan Williams
* Gregory Winter
* Semir Zeki

Foreign|

* Edward Norton Lorenz
* Yasutomi Nishizuka
* Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
* E. O. Wilson
* Bengt I. Samuelsson
* Lyman Spitzer

* v
* t
* e

James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics recipients

1975–1990|

* 1975: Lyman Spitzer
* 1976: Marshall Rosenbluth
* 1977: John M. Dawson
* 1978: Richard F. Post
* 1979: Tihiro Ohkawa
* 1980: Thomas H. Stix
* 1981: John Nuckolls
* 1982: Ira B. Bernstein
* 1983: Harold Fürth
* 1984: Donald W. Kerst
* 1985: John H. Malmberg
* 1986: Harold Grad
* 1987: Bruno Coppi
* 1988: Norman Rostoker
* 1989: Ravindra N. Sudan
* 1990: William L. Kruer

1991–2000|

* 1991: Hans R. Griem
* 1992: John M. Greene
* 1993: Russell Kulsrud
* 1994: Roy W. Gould
* 1995: Francis F. Chen
* 1996: Thomas M. O'Neil
* 1997: Charles Kennel
* 1998: Boris Kadomtsev
* 1999: John B. Taylor
* 2000: Akira Hasegawa

2001–2010|

* 2001: Roald Sagdeev
* 2002: Edward A. Frieman
* 2003: Eugene Parker
* 2004: Noah Hershkowitz / Valery Godyak
* 2005: Nathaniel J. Fisch
* 2006: Chandrashekhar J. Joshi
* 2007: John Lindl
* 2008: Ronald C. Davidson
* 2009: Miklos Porkolab
* 2010: James F. Drake

2011–2020|

* 2011: Gregor Morfill
* 2012: Liu Chen
* 2013: Phillip Sprangle
* 2014: Clifford Surko
* 2015: Masaaki Yamada
* 2016: Ellen G. Zweibel
* 2017: Dmitri Ryutov
* 2018: Keith Burrell
* 2019: William H. Matthaeus
* 2020: Warren B. Mori

2021–present|

* 2021: Margaret G. Kivelson
* 2022: Amitava Bhattacharjee
* 2023: Thomas M. Antonsen Jr.

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