Stuart Pottasch (16 January 1932 – 4 April 2018) was a professor at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

and a researcher of

planetary nebulae A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated t ...

Personal life

Pottasch was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

on 16 January 1932 to Max and Juliette Pottasch. His father Max was born 11 August 1894 in Germany, and arrived in the US in 1921; his mother was born in NYC in 1906. Pottasch had a sister, Suzanne, also born in 1932. Stuart assembled one of the largest collections of cacti in the Netherlands, as well as keeping and breeding

parrot Parrots, also known as psittacines (), are birds of the roughly 398 species in 92 genera comprising the order Psittaciformes (), found mostly in tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three superfamilies: the Psittacoide ...

s. He married Anna Maria de Groot, whom he met on his first visit to Leiden. They had three children; a daughter and two sons. Anna Maria died in 1989, after which he married Greet Mientjes and moved to an isolated farm house in Tolbert, Leek, Netherlands. He died in Groningen on 4 April 2018 after a long illness.

Education and research

He received a bachelor's degree in

Engineering Physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1954. He was in Leiden for 1955, before going to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, where he received a master's degree in 1957. His dissertation on ''"The Novae Outburst"'', supervised by R.N. Thomas, resulted in a PhD from the

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University o ...

in 1958. He was subsequently employed as a postdoc at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

, the Paris Observatory in 1959–60,

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1960–62 (assistant professorship), at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...

, and

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

(1962–63). He became a Professor of Astrophysics at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of the

from 1963, a position he was offered by

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 ...

. He was Chairman of the Department of Astronomy in 1969–1982. He retired with a pension in 1997, and he was subsequently an Emeritus Professor. His main research focus was

, about which he wrote a textbook. He published around 400 papers, which received over 10,000 citations during his lifetime. He also discovered a planetary nebula, which was later given the name of Po 1. He was

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands from 1963 until 1969, when the journal merged with other national journals to become the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal; he was subsequently an editor of that journal until 1976, when he transitioned to editing the 'Letters' edition of the journal, a role he kept until 1998, while also being an editor of

The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review ''The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that is published quarterly by Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer_Nature. The editor-in-chief is Francesca Matteucci. The first issue was published in Apri ...

from 1990 until 1999. He supervised 22 PhD students, including Harm Habing,

Klaas de Boer Klaas de Boer (born 6 January 1942, Kollum) is a retired U.S. soccer player and coach. He played professionally in the American Soccer League and was the 1977 NSCAA Coach of the Year and 1985 American Indoor Soccer Association Coach of the Yea ...

, Jacqueline van Gorkom, Roel Gathier, Peter Roelfsema, Albert Zijlstra, Rob Assendorp, Rene Laureijs, Griet Van de Steene and Rene Oudmaijer. He was a member of

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...

from 1989.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pottasch, Stuart 1932 births 2018 deaths Educators from New York City American astronomers Cornell University alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni Harvard University alumni Members of Academia Europaea Scientists from New York (state)