Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS

HFRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". This soci ...

FRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the

Hertzsprung–Russell diagram The Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, abbreviated as H–R diagram, HR diagram or HRD, is a scatter plot of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosity, luminosities versus their stellar classifications or eff ...

(1910). In 1923, working with

Frederick Saunders Frederick Saunders (14 August 1807 – 12 December 1902) was an English-born American librarian. Biography Frederick Saunders was born in London on 14 August 1807. His father was the senior member of Saunders and Ottley, book publishers of Lond ...

, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling, which is also known as

LS coupling In quantum mechanics, the procedure of constructing eigenstates of total angular momentum out of eigenstates of separate angular momenta is called angular momentum coupling. For instance, the orbit and spin of a single particle can interact th ...

.Obituary MNRAS 118 (1958) 311
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Life

Russell was born on 25 October 1877, at Oyster Bay, New York, the son of Rev Alexander Gatherer Russell (1845-1911) and his wife, Eliza Hoxie Norris. After graduating from George School in 1895, he studied astronomy at Princeton University, obtaining his B.A. In 1897 and his doctorate in 1899, studying under Charles Augustus Young. From 1903 to 1905, he worked at the

Cambridge Observatory Cambridge Observatory is an astronomical observatory at the University of Cambridge in the East of England. It was established in 1823 and is now part of the site of the Institute of Astronomy. The old Observatory building houses the Institute o ...

with

Arthur Robert Hinks Arthur Robert Hinks, CBE, FRS (26 May 1873 – 14 April 1945) was a British astronomer and geographer. As an astronomer, he is best known for his work in determining the distance from the Sun to the Earth (the astronomical unit) from 1900 to ...

as a research assistant of the Carnegie Institution and came under the strong influence of George Darwin. He returned to Princeton to become an instructor in astronomy (1905–1908), assistant professor (1908–1911), professor (1911–1927) and research professor (1927–1947). He was also the director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1912 to 1947 where Charlotte Moore Sitterly helped him measure and calculate the properties of stars. He died in Princeton, New Jersey on 18 February 1957 at the age of 79. He is buried in Princeton Cemetery. Delegates to the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory

Delegates to the Fourth Conference International Union for Cooperation in Solar Research at Mount Wilson Observatory

Family

In November 1908 Russell married Lucy May Cole (1881-1968). They had four children. Their youngest daughter, Margaret Russell (1914-1999), married the astronomer

Frank K. Edmondson Frank Kelley Edmondson (August 1, 1912 – December 8, 2008) was an American astronomer. Life and career Edmondson was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and grew up in Seymour, Indiana. He graduated from Indiana University in 1933 and received a fel ...

in the 1930s.

Published work

Russell co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with Raymond Smith Dugan and

John Quincy Stewart John Quincy Stewart (September 10, 1894 – March 19, 1972) was an American astrophysicist. He obtained his Ph.D. in physics from Princeton University in 1919. He taught astrophysics at Princeton from 1921 until he retired in 1963. Stewart ...

: ''Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy'' (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926–27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first was ''The Solar System'' and the second was ''Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy''. The textbook popularized the idea that a star's properties (radius, surface temperature,

luminosity Luminosity is an absolute measure of radiated electromagnetic power (light), the radiant power emitted by a light-emitting object over time. In astronomy, luminosity is the total amount of electromagnetic energy emitted per unit of time by a st ...

, etc.) were largely determined by the star's mass and chemical composition, which became known as the

Vogt–Russell theorem The Vogt–Russell theorem states that the structure of a star, in hydrostatic and thermal equilibrium with all energy derived from nuclear reactions, is uniquely determined by its mass and the distribution of chemical elements throughout its interi ...

(including Heinrich Vogt who independently discovered the result). Since a star's chemical composition gradually changes with age (usually in a non-homogeneous fashion),

stellar evolution Stellar evolution is the process by which a star changes over the course of time. Depending on the mass of the star, its lifetime can range from a few million years for the most massive to trillions of years for the least massive, which is cons ...

results. Russell dissuaded Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her thesis, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. He realized she was correct four years later after deriving the same result by different means. In his paper Russell credited Payne with discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth. * * * *

Awards and honors

* Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1921) * Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1921) * Lalande Prize (1922) * Henry Draper Medal from the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

(1922) * Bruce Medal (1925) * Rumford Prize (1925) * Franklin Medal (1934) * Janssen Medal from the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

(1936) * Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1937) * Honorary Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

(1938) *

Henry Norris Russell Lectureship The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research. The idea for the lectureship came from then society President Harlow Shapley in 1945, ...

(1946) *

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

1762 Russell 1762 Russell, provisional designation , is a stony Koronian asteroid from the outer regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 16 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory near Brooklyn, ...

References

External links

*
Oral history interview transcript with Margaret Russell Edmondson on 21 April 1977, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives
- Margaret Russell Edmondson was Russell's youngest daughter {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Henry Norris 1877 births 1957 deaths People from Oyster Bay (town), New York American astronomers American astrophysicists Princeton University alumni Princeton University faculty People from Princeton, New Jersey Burials at Princeton Cemetery Recipients of the Bruce Medal Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society Foreign Members of the Royal Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the French Academy of Sciences Scientists from New York (state)