Bengt Strömgren
This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2014) |
Bengt Strömgren | |
---|---|
Strömgren Spheres, Strömgren photometric system, stellar chemistry | |
Awards | Bruce Medal 1959 |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy |
Institutions | University of Chicago, Yerkes and McDonald Observatory, Institute for Advanced Study |
Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren (21 January 1908 – 4 July 1987) was a Danish astronomer and astrophysicist.[1][2]
Life and career
Bengt Strömgren was born in Gothenburg. His parents were Hedvig Strömgren (née Lidforss) and Elis Strömgren, who was professor of astronomy at the University of Copenhagen and director of the University Observatory in Copenhagen. Bengt grew up in the professor's mansion surrounded with scientists, assistants, observers and guests. His father paced and promoted Bengt into a life with science, and Bengt's first paper was published already at the age of 14. He graduated from high school in 1925 and enrolled at the Copenhagen university. Only two years later, he graduated in astronomy and atomic physics, and during the following two years, he completed a doctoral degree, which was evaluated with the best marks in December 1929, when he was 21 years old.
He gained a great deal of useful experience from his studies in
After being appointed as lecturer at the university in 1932, Strömgren was invited to the
He went to the United States and became director of the Yerkes and McDonald Observatories, and stayed there for six years. In 1957, he was appointed the first professor of theoretical astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he got Albert Einstein's office. He stayed at Princeton with his family until 1967, when he went back to his homeland Denmark, and became the next to the last resident in a series of great Danish scientists of the Carlsberg Mansion and Honor, which had earlier been occupied by Niels Bohr among others. In 1987, he died after a short period of illness.
Science
Bengt Strömgren made momentous contributions to astrophysics. He found that the
.Honors
Awards
- Bruce Medal (1959)
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1962)
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1965)
- Janssen Medal from the French Academy of Sciences (1967)
Memberships
- Member of the American Academy of Arts an Sciences (1955)[3]
- Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1971)[4]
- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1973)[5]
Named after him
- Asteroid 1846 Bengt
- Strömgren age
- Strömgren photometry
- Strömgren spheres
- Strömgren integral
Miscellaneous
- Asteroid 1493 Sigrid, named after his wife
References
- .
- Bibcode:1988QJRAS..29..282R.
- ^ "Bengt Georg Daniel Stromgren". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
- ^ "Bengt Stromgren". www.nasonline.org. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-08-15.
Sources
- Svend Cedergreen Bech (ed.): Dansk Biografisk Leksikon (1979–84), 3rd ed. Put on-line by Den Store Danske in 2011. (in Danish)
- Bengt Strömgrens life among the stars, Niels Bohr Institute
- Bruce Medalist Bengt Strömgren
- Autobiography in a celebrative commemorative published by University of Copenhagen November 1930 (176-78) (Berlingske Tidende id. 17.9.1962). (in Danish)
- Knude, Jens, Bengt Stromgren's Work in Photometry, in A.G.D. Philip, A.R. Upgren and K.A. Janes, eds., "Precision Photometry: Astrophysics of the Galaxy", Proceedings of the conference held 3–4 October 1990 at Union College, Schenectady, NY (Davis Press, Schenectady, NY, 1991).
- Rebsdorf, Simon Olling (May 2003): Bengt Strömgren: growing up with astronomy, 1908 - 1932, Journal for the History of Astronomy (ISSN 0021-8286), Vol. 34, Part 2, No. 115, pp. 171 – 199 (2003)
- Rebsdorf, Simon Olling (August 2004): The Father, the Son, and the Stars: Bengt Strömgren and the History of Twentieth Century Astronomy in Denmark and in the USA. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Aarhus.
- Rebsdorf, Simon Olling (February 2007): Bengt Strömgren: Interstellar Glow, Helium Content, and Solar Life Supply, 1932–1940. Centaurus, Vol. 49, Issue 1, pages 56–79.
- Gustafsson, Bengt (2009): Bengt Strömgren’s Approach to the Galaxy, in J. Andersen, J. Bland-Hawthorn & B. Nordström, eds., "The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context." Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 254 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2009), pp. 3–16.
External links
- Bibliography of Bengt Strömgren Archived 2016-05-06 at the Wayback Machine
- Bruce Medalist Bengt Strömgren