Silvia Torres-Peimbert (also known as Silvia Linda Torres Castilleja, born in 1940) is a Mexican astronomer. She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2011 for Latin America for her work determining the chemical composition of

nebulae A nebula ('cloud' or 'fog' in Latin; pl. nebulae, nebulæ or nebulas) is a distinct luminescent part of interstellar medium, which can consist of ionized, neutral or molecular hydrogen and also cosmic dust. Nebulae are often star-forming region ...

Life

Torres-Peimbert was born in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...

in 1940. She studied Physics at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(NAUM) before going to the

University of California in Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. She returned to Mexico to conduct post-doctoral research at her alma mater. She studied

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

and the mass thrown out by mid-size stars. She has studied the distribution of the primordial helium abundance. In 1973 she became a professor in the Faculty of Sciences and the Institute of Astronomy at UNAM and was the director of Institute of Astronomy from 1998 to 2002. During this time she worked closely with Manuel Peimbert, her husband. Torres-Peimbert and Peimbert had both been students of

Guillermo Haro Guillermo Haro Barraza (; 21 March 1913 – 26 April 1988) was a Mexican astronomer. Through his own astronomical research and the formation of new institutions, Haro was influential in the development of modern observational astronomy in M ...

(Haro was in 1959 the first person elected to the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

from a developing country). Torres-Peimbert was the editor of

Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica The ''Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica'' (often ''RevMexAA'' or ''RMxAA'') is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of astronomy founded in 1974. It is a successor to the ''Boletín de los Observatorios de Tonantzintla y Tacubaya'' whic ...

from 1974 to 1998 Silvia Torres-Peimbert
unam.mx, retrieved 17 March 2014 Torres-Peimbert was named President of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

for the 2015-2018 period, becoming the second woman to preside over the IAU.

Recognition

Torres-Peimbert is a member of the

Mexican Academy of Sciences The Mexican Academy of Sciences ''(Academia Mexicana de Ciencias)'' is a non-profit organization comprising over 1800 distinguished Mexican scientists, attached to various institutions in the country, as well as a number of eminent foreign coll ...

, and a member of 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 Academy of Sciences of the Developing World.Professor Silvia Torres-Peimbert wins the L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science
International Astronomical Union, retrieved 18 March 2014 She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2011 for Latin America. The award is given annually to leading women scientists with an award being given to five continents. She won the award for investigating the "chemical composition of nebulae" which the organisers considered essential to our understanding of the beginning of the cosmos. She also won the Hans A. Bethe Prize in 2012 for her work in determining the quantities of helium and other elements during the development of the universe. Knowing about these elements allows cosmologists to understand the evolution of stars and galaxies.2012 Hans A. Bethe Prize Recipient
American Physical Society, retrieved 18 March 2014

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Torres-Peimbert, Silvia 1940 births Living people People from Mexico City Women astronomers Mexican astronomers National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century women scientists Presidents of the International Astronomical Union Members of the Mexican Academy of Sciences