Donald Edward Osterbrock (July 13, 1924 – January 11, 2007) was 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 ...

astronomer, best known for his work on

star formation Star formation is the process by which dense regions within molecular clouds in The "medium" is present further soon.-->interstellar space

and on the history of astronomy.

Biography

Osterbrock was born in Cincinnati. His father was an

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He served with the US Army in the Second World War, making weather observations in the Pacific. He did undergraduate classes in physics at the University of Chicago as part of his weather training. He was educated at the University of Chicago, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in physics and a PhD in astronomy in 1952. He was a student of

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (; ) (19 October 1910 – 21 August 1995) was an Indian-American theoretical physicist who spent his professional life in the United States. He shared the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for "... ...

while working at University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory. His work there with William Wilson Morgan and Stewart Sharpless showed the existence of the Milky Way's spiral arms. He became a post-doctoral researcher, instructor and assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology until 1958. He was then appointed assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, received tenure there in 1959, and was promoted to full professor in 1961. He was a Guggenheim Fellow for the academic year 1960–1961. In 1973 he moved from Madison to the University of California at Santa Cruz, as Professor of Astronomy and

Astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...

, and Director of

Lick Observatory The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory owned and operated by the University of California. It is on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, United States. The observatory is managed by th ...

, a position he held until 1981. He remained on the faculty at UC Santa Cruz until his retirement in 1993. Thereafter,

Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

Professor Osterbrock continued to make daily trips to his office on campus, to work on his research, to keep publishing, and to maintain an active role in the astronomical community. At the time of his death he had authored 12 monographs on astronomy and the history of astronomy, including, in 1989 the influential textbook ''Astrophysics of Gaseous Nebulae and Active Galactic Nuclei,'' and the recently updated and revised 2nd edition (2006) written along with

Gary Ferland Gary Joseph Ferland (born May 10, 1951, in Washington D.C.) is an American astrophysicist. He is a professor of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Kentucky. He joined the University of TexasAstronomy Departmentin 1973 where he rece ...

of the University of Kentucky. Alongside his more than 150 articles on astronomy and astrophysics, he published 70 historical studies, biographical memoirs, and obituaries of major figures in nineteenth and twentieth century astronomy, and numerous book reviews. Osterbrock's research included work on the nature of ionized gases around hot stars and studying active

galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not pr ...

black holes A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...

. Osterbrock received lifetime achievement awards from the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. He was President of the American Astronomical Society from 1988 to 1990. He died following a heart attack. He was survived by his wife of 54 years, Irene Hansen (1926-2019), and their son and two daughters.

Honors

*Member,

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 ...

(1966) *Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1968) *Member, American Philosophical Society (1991) *Associate, Royal Astronomical Society (1976) *

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, ...

(1991) * Corresponding member, Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (1998)

Awards

*University of Chicago Alumni Association Professional Achievement Award (1982) *University Center Distinguished Scholar in Physics and Astronomy, Atlanta, Georgia (1990) *Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal, Astronomical Society of the Pacific (1991) *Gold Medal, Royal Astronomical Society (1997) *Antoinette de Vancouleurs Memorial Lectureship and Medal, University of Texas (1994) *Hans Lippershey Medal, Antique Telescope Society (1998) *University of Chicago Alumni Medal (2000) *Leroy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy, Historical Astronomy Division,

(2002)

Named after him

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. ...

6107 Osterbrock 61 may refer to: * 61 (number) * one of the years 61 BC, AD 61, 1961, 2061 * In some countries, a slang name for the Cyrillic letter Ы * '' 61*'', a 2001 American sports drama film * "Sixty One", a song by Karma to Burn from the album ''Mountain ...

* Osterbrock Book Prize; the Donald E. Osterbrock Book Prize for Historical Astronomy is awarded biennially in odd-numbered years since 2011

Honorary degrees

D.Sc. Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

, Ohio State University (1986) *D.Sc., University of Chicago (1992) *D.Sc., University of Wisconsin, Madison (1997) *D.Sc., Ohio University (2003) *D.Sc., University of Cincinnati (2004)

References

Obituary
'' The New York Times'', 27 January 2007
Obituary
'' The Times'', 14 March 2007
Obituary
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 29 August 2007
Bruce Medal pagePress release
UC Santa Cruz, January 12, 2007

External links

Lick Observatory page

University of California Observatories page

Photographs of Donald Osterbrock from the UC Santa Cruz Library's Digital CollectionsBiographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Osterbrock, Donald 1924 births Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 2007 deaths American astronomers University of Chicago alumni University of California, Santa Cruz faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II Scientists from Cincinnati Members of the American Philosophical Society