The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

. It is named after

Catherine Wolfe Bruce Catherine Wolfe Bruce (January 22, 1816, New York – March 13, 1900, New York) was a noted American philanthropist and patron of astronomy. Early life Bruce was born on January 22, 1816. She was the daughter of the George Bruce (1781–1866), a ...

, an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

patroness Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898.

List of Bruce Medalists

Source
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
* 1898 –

Simon Newcomb Simon Newcomb (March 12, 1835 – July 11, 1909) was a Canadian–American astronomer, applied mathematician, and autodidactic polymath. He served as Professor of Mathematics in the United States Navy and at Johns Hopkins University. Born in Nov ...

* 1899 –

Arthur Auwers Georg Friedrich Julius Arthur von Auwers (12 September 1838 – 24 January 1915) was a German astronomer. Auwers was born in Göttingen to Gottfried Daniel Auwers and Emma Christiane Sophie (née Borkenstein). He attended the University of G� ...

* 1900 – David Gill * 1902 –

Giovanni V. Schiaparelli Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli ( , also , ; 14 March 1835 – 4 July 1910) was an Italian astronomer and science historian. Biography He studied at the University of Turin, graduating in 1854, and later did research at Berlin Observatory, ...

* 1904 –

William Huggins Sir William Huggins (7 February 1824 – 12 May 1910) was an English astronomer best known for his pioneering work in astronomical spectroscopy together with his wife, Margaret. Biography William Huggins was born at Cornhill, Middlesex, in ...

* 1906 –

Hermann Carl Vogel Hermann Carl Vogel (; ; 3 April 1841 – 13 August 1907) was a German astrophysicist. He was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony. From 1882 to 1907 he was director of the Astrophysical Observatory, Potsdam. He made extensive discoveries ...

* 1908 –

Edward C. Pickering Edward Charles Pickering (July 19, 1846 – February 3, 1919) was an American astronomer and physicist and the older brother of William Henry Pickering. Along with Hermann Carl Vogel, Carl Vogel, Pickering discovered the first spectroscopic binary ...

* 1909 – George William Hill * 1911 –

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...

* 1913 – Jacobus C. Kapteyn * 1914 –

Oskar Backlund Johan Oskar Backlund (28 April 1846 – 29 August 1916) was a Swedish-Russian astronomer. His name is sometimes given as Jöns Oskar Backlund, however even contemporary Swedish sources give "Johan". In Russia, where he spent his entire career, he ...

* 1915 –

William Wallace Campbell William Wallace Campbell (April 11, 1862 – June 14, 1938) was an American astronomer, and director of Lick Observatory from 1901 to 1930. He specialized in spectroscopy. He was the tenth president of the University of California from 1923 to 1 ...

* 1916 –

George Ellery Hale George Ellery Hale (June 29, 1868 – February 21, 1938) was an American solar astronomer, best known for his discovery of magnetic fields in sunspots, and as the leader or key figure in the planning or construction of several world-lea ...

* 1917 –

Edward Emerson Barnard Edward Emerson Barnard (December 16, 1857 – February 6, 1923) was an American astronomer. He was commonly known as E. E. Barnard, and was recognized as a gifted observational astronomer. He is best known for his discovery of the high proper mo ...

* 1920 – Ernest W. Brown * 1921 – Henri A. Deslandres * 1922 – Frank W. Dyson * 1923 – Benjamin Baillaud * 1924 –

Arthur Stanley Eddington Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington (28 December 1882 – 22 November 1944) was an English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician. He was also a philosopher of science and a populariser of science. The Eddington limit, the natural limit to the lumi ...

* 1925 –

Henry Norris Russell Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS HFRSE FRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he deve ...

* 1926 – Robert G. Aitken * 1927 –

Herbert Hall Turner Herbert Hall Turner (13 August 1861 – 20 August 1930) was a British astronomer and seismologist. Biography Herbert Hall Turner was educated at the Leeds Modern School, Clifton College, Bristol and Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1884 h ...

* 1928 – Walter S. Adams * 1929 –

Frank Schlesinger Frank Schlesinger (May 11, 1871 – July 10, 1943) was an American astronomer. His work concentrated on using photographic plates rather than direct visual studies for astronomical research. Biography Schlesinger was born in New York City and a ...

* 1930 –

Max Wolf Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (21 June 1863 – 3 October 1932) was a German astronomer and a pioneer in the field of astrophotography. He was the chairman of astronomy at the University of Heidelberg and director of the Heidelberg-K� ...

* 1931 – Willem de Sitter * 1932 – John S. Plaskett * 1933 – Carl V.L. Charlier * 1934 –

Alfred Fowler Alfred Fowler, CBE FRS (22 March 1868, in Yorkshire – 24 June 1940) was an English astronomer. Early life and career He was born in Wilsden on the outskirts of Bradford, Yorkshire and educated at London's Normal School of Science, w ...

* 1935 – Vesto M. Slipher * 1936 – Armin O. Leuschner * 1937 –

Ejnar Hertzsprung Ejnar Hertzsprung (; Copenhagen, 8 October 1873 – 21 October 1967, Roskilde) was a Danish chemist and astronomer. Career Hertzsprung was born in Frederiksberg, Denmark, the son of Severin and Henriette. He studied chemical engineering at Cop ...

* 1938 – Edwin P. Hubble * 1939 –

Harlow Shapley Harlow Shapley (November 2, 1885 – October 20, 1972) was an American scientist, head of the Harvard College Observatory (1921–1952), and political activist during the latter New Deal and Fair Deal. Shapley used Cepheid variable stars to estim ...

* 1940 – Frederick H. Seares * 1941 –

Joel Stebbins Joel Stebbins (July 30, 1878 – March 16, 1966) was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He was director of the University of Illinois Observatory from 1903 to 1922 where he performed innovative work with th ...

* 1942 – Jan H. Oort * 1945 – E. Arthur Milne * 1946 – Paul Merrill * 1947 –

Bernard Lyot Bernard Ferdinand Lyot (27 February 1897 in Paris – 2 April 1952 in Cairo) was a French astronomer. Biography An avid reader of the works of Camille Flammarion, he became a member of the Société Astronomique de France in 1915 and made h ...

* 1948 –

Otto Struve Otto Struve (August 12, 1897 – April 6, 1963) was a Russian-American astronomer of Baltic German origins. In Russian, his name is sometimes given as Otto Lyudvigovich Struve (Отто Людвигович Струве); however, he spent most o ...

* 1949 –

Harold Spencer Jones Sir Harold Spencer Jones KBE FRS FRSE PRAS (29 March 1890 – 3 November 1960) was an English astronomer. He became renowned as an authority on positional astronomy and served as the tenth Astronomer Royal for 23 years. Although born " ...

* 1950 – Alfred H. Joy * 1951 –

Marcel Minnaert Marcel Gilles Jozef Minnaert (12 February 1893 – 26 October 1970) was a Dutch astronomer of Belgian origin. He was born in Bruges and died in Utrecht. He is notable for his contributions to astronomy and physics and for a popular book on mete ...

* 1952 – Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar * 1953 –

Harold D. Babcock Harold Delos Babcock (January 24, 1882 – April 8, 1968) was an American astronomer and the father of Horace W. Babcock. He was of English and German ancestry. He was born in Edgerton, Wisconsin, before completing high school in Los Angeles ...

* 1954 –

Bertil Lindblad Bertil Lindblad (Örebro, 26 November 1895 – Saltsjöbaden, outside Stockholm, 25 June 1965) was a Swedish astronomer. After finishing his secondary education at Örebro högre allmänna läroverk, Lindblad matriculated at Uppsala Univer ...

* 1955 –

Walter Baade Wilhelm Heinrich Walter Baade (March 24, 1893 – June 25, 1960) was a German astronomer who worked in the United States from 1931 to 1959. Biography The son of a teacher, Baade finished school in 1912. He then studied maths, physics and astr ...

* 1956 –

Albrecht Unsöld Albrecht Otto Johannes Unsöld (20 April 1905 – 23 September 1995) was a German astrophysicist known for his contributions to spectroscopic analysis of stellar atmospheres. Career Albrecht Unsöld was born in Bolheim, Württemberg, Germany. ...

* 1957 – Ira S. Bowen * 1958 –

William Wilson Morgan William Wilson Morgan (January 3, 1906 – June 21, 1994) was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. The principal theme in Morgan's work was stellar and galaxy classification. He is also known for helping prove the existence of spiral arms i ...

* 1959 –

Bengt Strömgren Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren (21 January 1908 – 4 July 1987) was a Danish astronomer and astrophysicist. Life and career Bengt Strömgren was born in Gothenburg. His parents were Hedvig Strömgren (née Lidforss) and Elis Strömgren, wh ...

* 1960 – Viktor A. Ambartsumian * 1961 –

Rudolph Minkowski Rudolph Minkowski (born Rudolf Leo Bernhard Minkowski ; ; May 28, 1895 – January 4, 1976) was a German-American astronomer. Biography Minkowski was the son of Marie Johanna Siegel and physiologist Oskar Minkowski. His uncle was Hermann Min ...

* 1962 –

Grote Reber Grote Reber (December 22, 1911 – December 20, 2002) was an American pioneer of radio astronomy, which combined his interests in amateur radio and amateur astronomy. He was instrumental in investigating and extending Karl Jansky's pioneering wo ...

* 1963 –

Seth Barnes Nicholson Seth Barnes Nicholson (November 12, 1891 – July 2, 1963) was an American astronomer. He worked at the Lick observatory in California, and is known for discovering several moons of Jupiter in the 20th century. Nicholson was born in Springfield, ...

* 1964 –

Otto Heckmann Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann (June 23, 1901 – May 13, 1983) was a German astronomer. He directed the Hamburg Observatory from 1941 to 1962, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory. He actively contrib ...

* 1965 –

Martin Schwarzschild Martin Schwarzschild (May 31, 1912 – April 10, 1997) was a German-American astrophysicist. Biography Schwarzschild was born in Potsdam into a distinguished German Jewish academic family. His father was the physicist Karl Schwarzschild and ...

* 1966 –

Dirk Brouwer Dirk Brouwer (; September 1, 1902 – January 31, 1966) was a Dutch-American astronomer. He received his PhD in 1927 at Leiden University under Willem de Sitter and then went to Yale University. From 1941 until 1966 he was editor of the ''Ast ...

* 1967 –

Ludwig Biermann Ludwig Franz Benedikt Biermann (March 13, 1907 in Hamm – January 12, 1986 in München) was a German astronomer, obtaining his Ph.D. from Göttingen University in 1932. He made important contributions to astrophysics and plasma physics, di ...

* 1968 – Willem J. Luyten * 1969 –

Horace W. Babcock Horace Welcome Babcock (September 13, 1912 – August 29, 2003) was an American astronomer. He was the son of Harold D. Babcock. Career Babcock invented and built a number of astronomical instruments, and in 1953 was the first to propose th ...

* 1970 –

Fred Hoyle Sir Fred Hoyle FRS (24 June 1915 – 20 August 2001) was an English astronomer who formulated the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis and was one of the authors of the influential B2FH paper. He also held controversial stances on other sci ...

* 1971 –

Jesse Greenstein Jesse Leonard Greenstein (October 15, 1909 – October 21, 2002) was an American astronomer. His parents were Maurice G. and Leah Feingold. He earned a Ph.D, with thesis advisor Donald H. Menzel, from Harvard University in 1937, having starte ...

* 1972 – Iosif S. Shklovskii * 1973 – Lyman Spitzer Jr. * 1974 –

Martin Ryle Sir Martin Ryle (27 September 1918 – 14 October 1984) was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e.g. aperture synthesis) and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio source ...

* 1975 – Allan R. Sandage * 1976 – Ernst J. Öpik * 1977 – Bart J. Bok * 1978 –

Hendrik C. van de Hulst Hendrik Christoffel "Henk" van de Hulst (19 November 1918 – 31 July 2000) was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician. In 1944, while a student in Utrecht, he predicted the existence of the 21 cm hyperfine line of neutral interstellar hydrogen. ...

* 1979 –

William A. Fowler William Alfred Fowler ( ) was an American nuclear physicist, later astrophysicist, who, with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, won the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics. He is known for his theoretical and experimental research into nuclear reactions wit ...

* 1980 –

George Herbig George Howard Herbig (January 2, 1920 – October 12, 2013) was an American astronomer at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy. He is perhaps best known for the discovery of Herbig–Haro objects. Background Born in 1920 in Wheeling ...

* 1981 –

Riccardo Giacconi Riccardo Giacconi ( , ; October 6, 1931 – December 9, 2018) was an Italian-American Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist who laid down the foundations of X-ray astronomy. He was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University. Biography Born in ...

* 1982 – E. Margaret Burbidge * 1983 – Yakov B. Zel'dovich * 1984 – Olin C. Wilson * 1985 – Thomas G. Cowling * 1986 – Fred L. Whipple * 1987 –

Edwin E. Salpeter Edwin Ernest Salpeter (3 December 1924 – 26 November 2008,) was an Austrian–Australian–American astrophysicist. Life Born in Vienna to a Jewish family, Salpeter emigrated from Austria to Australia while in his teens to escape the Nazis. He ...

* 1988 – John G. Bolton * 1989 –

Adriaan Blaauw Adriaan Blaauw (12 April 1914 – 1 December 2010) was a Dutch astronomer. Blaauw was born in Amsterdam to Cornelis Blaauw and Gesina Clasina Zwart, and studied at Leiden University and the University of Groningen, obtaining his doctorate at the ...

* 1990 – Charlotte E. Moore Sitterly * 1991 – Donald E. Osterbrock * 1992 –

Maarten Schmidt Maarten Schmidt (28 December 1929 – 17 September 2022) was a Dutch-born American astronomer who first measured the distances of quasars. He was the first astronomer to identify a quasar, and so was pictured on the March cover of ''Time'' mag ...

* 1993 –

Martin Rees Martin John Rees, Baron Rees of Ludlow One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from the royalsociety.org website where: (born 23 June 1942) is a British cosmologist and astrophysicist. He is the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, ...

* 1994 –

Wallace Sargent Wallace Leslie William Sargent (February 15, 1935 – October 29, 2012) was a British-born American astronomer and the Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy at California Institute of Technology. Education Sargent was born in Elsham, No ...

* 1995 – P. James E. Peebles * 1996 – Albert E. Whitford * 1997 –

Eugene Parker Eugene Newman Parker (June 10, 1927 – March 15, 2022) was an American solar and plasma physicist. In the 1950s he proposed the existence of the solar wind and that the magnetic field in the outer Solar System would be in the shape of a Pa ...

* 1998 –

Donald Lynden-Bell Donald Lynden-Bell CBE FRS (5 April 1935 – 6 February 2018) was a British theoretical astrophysicist. He was the first to determine that galaxies contain supermassive black holes at their centres, and that such black holes power quasars. ...

* 1999 – Geoffrey R. Burbidge * 2000 – Rashid A. Sunyaev * 2001 – Hans A. Bethe * 2002 –

Bohdan Paczyński Bohdan Paczyński or Bohdan Paczynski (8 February 1940 – 19 April 2007) was a Polish astronomer notable in the theory of the stellar evolution, accretion discs, and gamma ray bursts. Life Paczyński was born on 8 February 1940 in Vilnius, Lith ...

* 2003 – Vera C. Rubin * 2004 – Chūshirō Hayashi * 2005 –

Robert Kraft Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment ...

* 2006 –

Frank J. Low Frank James Low (November 23, 1933 – June 11, 2009) was a solid state physicist who became a leader in the new field of infrared astronomy, after inventing the gallium doped germanium bolometer in 1961. This detector extended the range of ...

* 2007 –

Martin Harwit Martin Otto Harwit (born 9 March 1931) is a Czech-American astronomer and author known for his scientific work on infrared astronomy as a professor at Cornell University. He was later director of the National Air and Space Museum in Washing ...

* 2008 –

Sidney van den Bergh Sidney Van den Bergh, OC, FRS (born 20 May 1929 in Wassenaar) is a retired Dutch-Canadian astronomer. He showed an interest in science from an early age, learning to read with books on astronomy. In addition to being interested in astronomy. ...

* 2009 – Frank H. Shu * 2010 –

Gerry Neugebauer Gerhart "Gerry" Neugebauer (3 September 1932 – 26 September 2014) was an American astronomer known for his pioneering work in infrared astronomy. Neugebauer was born in Göttingen, Germany and was the son of Otto Neugebauer, an Austrian-Amer ...

* 2011 –

Jeremiah P. Ostriker Jeremiah Paul "Jerry" Ostriker (born April 13, 1937) is an American astrophysicist and a professor of astronomy at Columbia University and is the Charles A. Young Professor ''Emeritus'' at Princeton where he also continues as a senior research s ...

* 2012 – Sandra M. Faber * 2013 –

James E. Gunn James Edwin Gunn (July 12, 1923 – December 23, 2020) was an American science fiction writer, editor, scholar, and anthologist. His work as an editor of anthologies includes the six-volume ''The Road to Science Fiction, Road to Science Ficti ...

* 2014 – Kenneth Kellermann * 2015 – Douglas N. C. Lin * 2016 –

Andrew Fabian Andrew Christopher Fabian (born 20 February 1948) is a British astronomer and astrophysicist. He was Director of the Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge from 2013 to 2018. He was a Royal Society Research Professor at the Institu ...

* 2017 –

Nick Scoville Nicholas Zabriskie "Nick" Scoville is the Francis L. Moseley Professor of Astronomy at California Institute of Technology, Caltech. Education Scoville earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. Research Scoville's research interests ...

* 2018 – Tim Heckman * 2019 –

Martha P. Haynes Martha Patricia Haynes (born 24 April 1951) is an American astronomer who specializes in radio astronomy and extragalactic astronomy. She is the distinguished professor of arts and sciences in astronomy at Cornell University.Prize suspended due to COVID-19 pandemic
* 2021 -

Bruce Elmegreen Bruce Gordon Elmegreen (born 24 February 1950) is an American astronomer. Life Elmegreen was born in Milwaukee, and received his bachelor's degree in 1971 from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and his PhD in 1975 from Princeton Univer ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

20th Century Astronomers
Astronomy prizes Awards established in 1898

List of Bruce Medalists

See also

References

External links