Irene Kaminka Fischer (born July 27, 1907 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, died October 22, 2009 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

) was an Austrian-American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

geodesist Geodesy ( ) is the Earth science of accurately measuring and understanding Earth's figure (geometric shape and size), orientation in space, and gravity. The field also incorporates studies of how these properties change over time and equival ...

. She was a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

, a Fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's a ...

, and inductee of the

National Imagery and Mapping Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of nation ...

Hall of Fame. Fischer became one of two internationally known women scientists in the field of geodesy during the golden age of the

Project Mercury Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...

and the Apollo program. Her ''Mercury

datum In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted. ...

'' (or '' Fischer ellipsoid'' 1960 and 1968), as well as her work on the lunar parallax, were instrumental in conducting these missions. "In his preface to the ACSM publication, Fischer's former colleague, Bernard Chovitz, referred to her as one of the most renowned geodesists of the third quarter of the twentieth century. Yet this fact alone makes her one of the most renowned geodesists of all times, because, according to Chovitz, the third quarter of the twentieth century witnessed "the transition of geodesy from a regional to a global enterprise."

Early life and education

Born and educated in Vienna, she studied

descriptive In the study of language, description or descriptive linguistics is the work of objectively analyzing and describing how language is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a speech community. François & Ponsonnet (2013). All acad ...

and

projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, ...

at the

Technical University of Vienna TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...

and mathematics at the University of Vienna. Her teachers

Moritz Schlick Friedrich Albert Moritz Schlick (; ; 14 April 1882 – 22 June 1936) was a German philosopher, physicist, and the founding father of logical positivism and the Vienna Circle. Early life and works Schlick was born in Berlin to a wealthy Prussian f ...

and Hans Hahn were among the luminaries of the

Vienna Circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, ch ...

; and her fellow students included physicist

Victor Weisskopf Victor Frederick "Viki" Weisskopf (also spelled Viktor; September 19, 1908 – April 22, 2002) was an Austrian-born American theoretical physicist. He did postdoctoral work with Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Wolfgang Pauli, and Niels Boh ...

, sociologist

Paul Lazarsfeld Paul Felix Lazarsfeld (February 13, 1901August 30, 1976) was an Austrian-American sociologist. The founder of Columbia University's Bureau of Applied Social Research, he exerted influence over the techniques and the organization of social rese ...

, and social psychologist Marie Jahoda. Her father, Rabbi , was head of the Maimonides Institute, and regularly led high holiday services at the famed Vienna Musikverein. He worked for the

Alliance Israélite Universelle The Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU; he, כל ישראל חברים; ) is a Paris-based international Jewish organization founded in 1860 with the purpose of safeguarding human rights for Jews around the world. It promotes the ideals of Jew ...

investigating

pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russia ...

s in Eastern Europe and raised money in the U.S. and Western Europe to help victims. In 1931 she married historian and geographer Eric Fischer, who helped introduce American, as distinct from British, history to Vienna. The Fischer family established and ran the 1843-founded Vienna Israelitische Kinderbewahranstalt, the first professional kindergarten and kindergarten teacher training school in Vienna, a place that also became a refuge for immigrants to Vienna from Eastern Europe.

Career

In 1939, the Fischers, with their young daughter, Gay, fled Nazi Austria, traveling by rail to Italy, by boat to Palestine and in 1941 by boat around East Africa and the Cape of Good Hope to Boston, where they lived with Eric Fischer's sister, mother, and brother in law, the physician Otto Ehrentheil and their two daughters. Looking for jobs, Fischer first worked as a seamstress’ assistant, then she graded blue books for

Wassily Leontief Wassily Wassilyevich Leontief (russian: Васи́лий Васи́льевич Лео́нтьев; August 5, 1905 – February 5, 1999), was a Soviet-American economist known for his research on input–output analysis and how changes in one ec ...

at Harvard and for Norbert Wiener at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

(MIT). She also worked on stereoscopic projective geometry trajectories for John Rule at MIT. She taught mathematics at Brown and Nichols Preparatory School in Cambridge, and then at

Sidwell Friends Sidwell Friends School is a Quaker school located in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C., offering pre-kindergarten through high school classes. Founded in 1883 by Thomas W. Sidwell, its motto is ' ( en, Let the light shine out from all), a ...

in Washington, D.C. After World War II, and after her son, Michael, born in 1946, had reached school age, she found a job at the then

Army Map Service The Army Map Service (AMS) was the military cartography, cartographic agency of the United States Department of Defense from 1941 to 1968, subordinated to the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On September 1, 1968, the AMS was redesignated th ...

, "Army Announces 15 Selections for R&D Achievement Awards" ''Army Research & Development Newsmagazine'' (June 1966): 8-9. via Internet Archive now the

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of natio ...

and the

Army Geospatial Center The Army Geospatial Center (AGC) (formerly Topographic Engineering Center (TEC)) is a Major Subordinate Command of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It is located in Alexandria, Virginia, within the Humphreys Engineering Center adjacen ...

in Potomac, Md., working under John A. O'Keefe in the Geodesy Branch and rising through the ranks to become the chief. Her twenty-five-year career at AMS, working on what became the

World Geodetic System The World Geodetic System (WGS) is a standard used in cartography, geodesy, and satellite navigation including GPS. The current version, WGS 84, defines an Earth-centered, Earth-fixed coordinate system and a geodetic datum, and also descr ...

, produced over 120 scientific publications. On the side, she published a high school geometry textbook in 1965 one of her many endeavors as an educator. After retiring in 1975, she wrote a memoir of her scientific career that was first serialized in the ACSM Bulletin (an official publication of the

American Congress on Surveying and Mapping The American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM) was an American professional association representing the interests of those engaged in measuring and communicating geospatial data. Originally, it was composed of four organizations: * America ...

, which then included five surveying and mapping professional organizations, 2004 – 06) covering the field of geodesy in the years 1951–1975, and discussing doing science in a man’s world in a government bureaucracy. It was published as a book in 2005. At the very beginning of her career in mathematics and geodesy, Dr. Fischer had quickly taught herself the basics of geodetic tables, datums, transformations, gravity studies, astronomy, long lines, flare triangulation, and guided missile ballistics. Her updates to geodetic science helped determine the parallax of the Moon. Irene Fischer was also intrigued by research into post glacial uplift, and her

geoid The geoid () is the shape that the ocean surface would take under the influence of the gravity of Earth, including gravitational attraction and Earth's rotation, if other influences such as winds and tides were absent. This surface is extended ...

studies went hand in hand with investigations of the lingering effects of the last ice age. Fischer disagreed with the established figure for the oblateness of the Earth (the fraction by which the polar axis is foreshortened by the equatorial radius), which had remained unchallenged since 1924. She was forbidden to use her updated figures in her own work because that result was in disagreement with the accepted literature. However, after the flight of the first satellites, she was vindicated by the data and observations from the instruments, and she was allowed to amend her previous works with her newly derived figures. In commenting on the lack of faith others put on her research, Dr. Fischer goodheartedly quipped that the satellites had not accepted the accepted literature, either.

Legacy

A pioneer during a time when there were few women in surveying, in 1967, Fischer was the first Army Map Service employee, and only the third woman ever, to receive the Distinguished Civilian Service Award. Fischer was internationally known for her many publications and presentations on the size and shape of the earth, including the Department of Defense manual, “Latitude Functions Fischer 1960 Ellipsoid.” Fischer wrote an autobiography (published 2005), entitled, ''Geodesy? What’s That? My Personal Involvement in the Age-Old Quest for the Size and Shape of the Earth, With a Running Commentary on Life in a Government Research Office.'' In addition, Fischer has written more than 120 other technical reports, articles and books in her fields of expertise, and many of her significant government reports are still classified today. Winner of many federal government service awards, Fischer was awarded an honorary degree by the

University of Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

, elected to the

, elected Fellow of the

, and inducted into the

(NIMA) Hall of Fame; the Learning Center at the new campus of the

National Geospatial Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of nation ...

has been named in her honor.

Family

She and her family were active for many years at Temple Israel in Silver Spring, Md., where she also taught an adult class in basic Hebrew, and was an active member of a forty-year-long chavura (discussion group). When she moved to Rockville, Md., she joined Congregation Beth El and endowed a Biblical archeology lecture series in her husband’s memory at the Rockville Jewish Community Center. In Israel, where many family members live, she and her husband endowed fellowships to a technical college. In 2001 she moved back to Brighton, Mass., three blocks from where she had first lived as an immigrant in 1941. In 2007 she celebrated her 100th birthday, and her children told the packed and rapt audience of her retirement community about her career. She is survived by her daughter Gay Fischer of Oberlin, Ohio, her son Michael M. J. Fischer and daughter-in-law Susann L. Wilkinson of Somerville, Mass., and many nephews and nieces, the children and grandchildren of her two brothers in Israel, and of her husband’s sister in New England.

Publications

* Fischer, Irene. 2006. "Racing Against Time."

Bulletin. Volume 220, pages 38–48. * Fischer, Irene K. 2006. "Catch 22 and a String of Kudos" alls Church, Va. American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Edition/Format: Article. Publication: ACSM bulletin. no. 221, (2006): 22. * Fischer, Irene K. 2005. Geodesy? what's that?: my personal involvement in the age-old quest for the size and shape of the earth with a running commentary on life in a government research office. New York, N.Y.: IUniverse, Inc. . * Fischer, Irene. 1998. "Earth, Size of." In Good, G.S., ed. Sciences of the Earth: Encyclopedia of Events, People and Phenomena. Garland Publishing: New York. . * Fischer, Irene K. 1981. "At the dawn of geodesy." Bulletin Géodésique, 1981, Volume 55, Number 2, Page 132. * Fischer, Irene. 1979. "The Effect of the Mid‐Atlantic Ridge in Terms of Gravity Anomalies, Geoidal Undulations, and Deflections of the Vertical". Marine Geodesy. 2, no. 3: 215-237. * Fischer, Irene. 1977. "Mean Sea Level and the Marine Geoid—an Analysis of Concepts". Marine Geodesy. 1, no. 1: 37-59. * Fischer, Irene. 1977. "Does mean sea level slope up or down toward north?" Curitiba: Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curso de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Geodésicas, 1977. Series: Boletim da Universidade Federal do Paraná; Geodésia (Curitiba, Brazil), no. 20. * Fischer, Irene. 1976. "Does Mean Sea Level Slope Up or Down Toward North?" Bulletin Géodésique. 50, no. 1: 79-80. * Fischer, Irene. 1977. "Marine Geodesy: A New Discipline or the Modem Realization of an Ancient Endeavor?" Marine Geodesy. 1, no. 2: 165-175. * Fischer, Irene. 1975. "The Figure of the Earth? Changes in Concepts". Geophysical Surveys. 2, no. 1: pages 3–54. * Fischer, Irene. 1974. "Deflections at Sea". Journal of Geophysical Research. 79, no. 14: pages 2123-2128. * Fischer, Irene. Deflections at Sea: Presented to the International Symposium on the Earth's Gravitational Field and Secular Variations in Position, Sydney ... 1973. Washington: Defense Mapping Agency, Topographic Center, 1973. * Fischer, Irene. 1972. The geoid; what's that?: All you wanted to know. Defense Mapping School (Fort Belvoir, Va.) Publisher: Ft. Belvoir, Va. : Defense Mapping School, 1972. Series: Student pamphlet, 4M-710-E-010-010 / Defense Mapping School. Fischer, Irene. The Geoid: All You Wanted to Know. Ft. Belvoir, Va: Defense Mapping School, 1972. * Fischer, Irene, and Sandra Todd. A Refined Procedure for Computing Geodetic Distances from HIRAN Observations: Presented to the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Washington ... 1971. Washington: U. S. Army Topographic Command, 1971. EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union. Volume 54, number 4, pages 185-185. * Fischer, Irene. 1970. "El geoide sudamericano referido a varios sistemas de referencia." Publisher: Buenos Aires .n.1970. Series: Publicación de la Comisión de Cartografía, n. 325.2. Spanish. "Separata de la Revista Cartográfica no. 18, año XVIII, 1969." * Fischer, Irene. The Geoid in South America to Various Reference Systems. Buenos Aires: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia, 1970. Paper Presented to the Xth Pan American Consultation on Cartography, Guatemala City 1965. Washington: Pan American Institute of Geography and History, 1969. * Fischer, Irene. The Development of the South American Datum 1969 (70-290). 1970. Papers from the 30th annual meeting f theAmerican congress on surveying and mapping, ...1970. * Fischer, Irene. New Pieces in the Picture Puzzle of an Astrogeodetic Geoid Map of the World. ashington, D.C. U.S. Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Topographic Command, 1969. Presented to XI Pan American consultation on cartography, Pan American Institute of Geography and History, Washington, D.C., 1969. * United States, and Irene Fischer. New Pieces in the Picture Puzzle of an Astrogeodetic Geoid Map of the World. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Topographic Command, 1969. * Fischer, Irene. Investigations Concerning the Astrogeodetic Determination of the Geoid on a Common Datum, Combined with Gravimetric and Satellite Interpolations. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of the Army, Corps of Engineers, Topographic Command, 1969. "Presented to XI Pan American American Consultation on Cartography, Pan American Institute of Geography and History, Washington, D.C., 1969." Summary in Spanish. * Fischer, Irene. Investigations Concerning the Astrogeodetic Determination of the Geoid on a Common Datum: Combined with Gravimetric and Satellite Interpolations : Paper Presented to XIVth General Assembly of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Lucerne 1967. Washington, D.C: Pan American Institute of Geography and History, 1969. * Fischer, Irene. 1968. Modification of the Mercury Datum. Military Engineer. Volume 61, number 401, pages 191-193. * Fischer, Irene. 1968. GEOID DETERMINATIONS. ARMY MAP SERVICE WASHINGTON DC. Publisher: Ft. Belvoir Defense Technical Information Center JAN 1968. Edition/Format: Book : Englis

* Fischer, Irene. 1968, A modification of the Mercury datum. United States. Army Map Service. Publisher: Washington: Army Map Service, 1968. Series: United States.; Army Map Service.; Technical report. * Fischer, Irene. From Pythagoras to a Modification of the Mercury Datum (Fischer 1968). Washington, D.C: Army Map Service, 1968. * Fischer, Irene, Mary Slutsky, F. R. Shirley, and P. Y. Wyatt. 1968. "New Pieces in the Picture Puzzle of an Astrogeodetic Geoid Map of the World". Bulletin Géodésique. 88, no. 1: 199-221. * Fischer, Irene. 1967. "Geoid charts of North and Central America." United States. Army Map Service.; et al. Washington, 1967. Series: United States.; Army Map Service.; Technical report. Abstract: The North American geoid map constructed by the Army Map Service in 1957 has been revised to accommodate accumulated new data. The procedure for constructing these three maps and the differences between them are explained

* Fischer, Irene. 1967. Deviations of the geoid from an equilibrium figure: presented to the special study group no. 16 of section 5 of the international association of geodesy, Vienna ... 1967. * Fischer, Irene. 1966. "Gravimetric interpolation of deflections of the vertical by electronic computer". Bulletin Géodésique. 81 (1): 267-275. * Fischer, Irene. 1966. "Slopes and Curvatures of the Geoid from Gravity Anomalies by Electronic Computer". Journal of Geophysical Research. 71 (20): 4909. * Fischer, Irene, Ray Shirley, and Philip Wyatt. 1966. "A Geoid Profile in North America from a Combination of Astrogeodetic and Gravimetric Data". Journal of Geophysical Research. 71 (20): 4917. * Fischer, Irene, and Mary Slutsky. 1966. Un estudio del geoide en Sud America. Pan American Institute of Geography and History.; Publicación no. 293 de la Comisión de cartografía.; Publicación (Pan American Institute of Geography and History), no. 293. "Separata de la Revista cartográfica no. 14, año 14, 1965." * Fischer, Irene. 1966. "A Revision of the GEOID Map of North America." Journal of Geophysical Research (JGR). Volume 71, number 20, pages 4905-4908. * Fischer, Irene and Mary Slutsky. 1965. "A study of the geoid in South America." Army Map Service.; Pan American Institute of Geography and History. Washington, D.C.: The Service, 965 Irene Fischer, Mary Slutsky ; presented to X Pan American Consultation of Cartography, Pan American Institute of Geography and History, Guatemala City, Guatemala, 1965 ; by Corps of Engineers, Army Map Service. * Fischer, Irene, and Dunstan Hayden. 1965. Geometry. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. And: Geometry. Teachers' supplement. and Geometry. Answer book. Allyn and Bacon. For Grades 9-12. by Irene Fischer and Dunstan Hayden. * Fischer, Irene and Mary Slutsky. 1964. "Conversion graphs for an astrogeodetic world datum." United States. Army Map Service. Washington: Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, Army Map Service, 1964. Series: United States.; Army Map Service.; Technical report. Cover title. Folded maps in pocket downgraded from confidential 11-5-65. Description: 17 pages: 3 fold. maps ; 27 cm. * Wilson, Donna. 1963.
Notes of Working Symposium on Solar System Constants, Feb 22-26, 1962
" Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA. May 1963. 79 pages. Dr. Fischer added comments and notes. * Fischer, Irene. 1963. "The distance to the moon." Philosophical Society of Washington (Washington, D.C.). Published by the co-operation of the Smithsonian Institution, 1963. Series: Bulletin of the Philosophical Society of Washington, Vol. 16, no. 2. * Fischer, Irene. 1962. THE PARALLAX OF THE MOON IN TERMS OF A WORLD GEODETIC SYSTEM. ARMY MAP SERVICE WASHINGTON D C. Publisher: Ft. Belvoir Defense Technical Information Center AUG 1962. DTIC Report Number: ADAAD0602535. Contents: The transit observations of mosting A, The geodetically computed distance between the observatories, Hansen's value of mean parallax, The geometric parallax as referred to the astrogeodetic world datum, The dynamical parallax, The lunar distance from occultations, The lunar distance from radar measurements. * Fischer, Irene. 1962. "The Parallax of the Moon in Terms of a World Geodetic System." Astronomical Journal. Volume 67, number 6, pages 373-378. * Fischer, Irene. 1962. Die gegenwärtige Ausdehnung des astronomisch-geodätisch bestimmten Geoids und das davon abgeleitete geodätische Weltdatum: Übers. von L. Kolb. Aus: Bulletin géodésique, 61, 1961, S.245-264. - EST: The present extent of the astro-geodetic geoid and the geodetic world datum derived from it (dt.). * Fischer, Irene. 1961. "The Present Extent of the Astro-Geodetic Geoid and the Geoid World Datum Derived from it." Bulletin Geodesique. New Series, number 61, September 1, 1961. * Fischer, Irene. 1960. "A Map of Geoidal Contours in North America." Bulletin Geodesique. Number 56, 1960. * Fischer, Irene. 1960. "An Astrogeodetic World Datum from Geoidal Heights Based on the Flattening f = 1/298.3". Journal of Geophysical Research. 65 (7). * Fischer, Irene. 1959. "The Impact of the Ice Age on the Present Form of the Geoid". Journal of Geophysical Research. 64 (1): 85-87. * Kaula, W. M. and Irene Fischer. 1959. US Army World Geodetic System 1959, Part I, Methods. Army Map Service Technical Reports 27. November 1959. * Fischer, Irene. 1959. "A Tentative World Datum from Geoidal Heights Based on the Hough Ellipsoid and the Columbus Geoid". Journal of Geophysical Research. 64 (1): 73-84. * Fischer, Irene. 1958. A TENTATIVE WORLD DATUM FROM GEOIDAL HEIGHTS. ARMY MAP SERVICE WASHINGTON D C. Publisher: Ft. Belvoir Defense Technical Information Center JUN 1958. * Fischer, Irene. 1954. "The deflection of the vertical in the Western and Central Mediterranean area". Bulletin Géodésique. 34 (1): 343-353.

Early life and education

Career

Legacy

Family

Publications

See also

References

Further reading