Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a German astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the

European Space Agency , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...

Space Telescope Advisory Team, and as Member of Council of the

European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 mem ...

. His research interests include

supernovae A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

and the

extragalactic Extragalactic astronomy is the branch of astronomy concerned with objects outside the Milky Way galaxy. In other words, it is the study of all astronomical objects which are not covered by galactic astronomy. The closest objects in extragalactic ...

distance scale. Tammann was a former President of the International Astronomical Union Commission on Galaxies.

Education and early career

Tammann studied astronomy in Basel,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and Göttingen, Germany. In 1963 he began a longtime working relationship with Allan Sandage at the Mount Wilson and Palomar observatories.

Academic career

In 1972 he became a professor at the University of Hamburg. From 1977 until his retirement, he was a professor and head of the Astronomical Institute at the University of Basel. Tammann is the grandson of the physical chemist

Gustav Tammann Gustav Andreas Tammann (24 July 1932 – 6 January 2019) was a German astronomer and academic. He served as director of the Astronomical Institute of the University of Basel; as a member of the European Space Agency Space Telescope Advisory Tea ...

Accolades

In 1991 Tammann became a full member of Academia Europaea, and in 1993 became a corresponding member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. In 2000 he received the Albert Einstein Medal that is given for "outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein" and the Tomalla Prize for his efforts in measuring the expansion rate of the universe and especially for his pioneering work using Supernovae as standard candles. In 2005 received the Karl Schwarzschild Medal. The asteroid

18872 Tammann Events January–March * January 11 – Louis Pasteur's anti-rabies treatment is defended in the Académie Nationale de Médecine, by Dr. Joseph Grancher. * January 20 ** The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Har ...

was named for him in 2001.

References

External links

Gustav A. Tammann
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tamman, Tammann, Gustav 20th-century Swiss astronomers Albert Einstein Medal recipients 1932 births 2019 deaths German Christians Swiss Christians People of Baltic German descent 20th-century German astronomers 21st-century Swiss astronomers University of Hamburg faculty