Unsung heroes of astronomy

[slowe]

For the book we solicited suggestions for unsung heroes in astronomy from other astronomers. We had limited space in the book so had to limit it to 18 people. On the website, without the space limitations, we can include a larger list. Who would you include and why?

[luaprelkniw]

Helen Sawyer Hogg - eclipsed her professional astronomer husband Frank's career by popularising astronomy to an unprecedented level in Canada during the 1950's to 1970's.

[philbull]

Edward Arthur Milne: Milne first articulated the Cosmological Principle, which is now recognised as one of the foundations of our cosmological model. He also constructed an alternative to General Relativity, and derived many cosmological results using only Newtonian gravity; both highlighted important questions in relativistic cosmology when few others were even thinking about it. Here's his obituary.

P.J.E. "Jim" Peebles: Jim Peebles, a theoretician at Princeton, essentially founded many sub-fields of cosmology. The modern picture of "physical cosmology" is deeply indebted to his work on the cosmic microwave background radiation, and the formation of large-scale structure. He was a key member of Dicke's team, who were planning to observe the CMB before they realised Penzias and Wilson had already done it. There are few areas of cosmology that don't owe something to Peebles, and yet he's practically unknown outside of the field.

[ArifSolmaz]

Dear Stuart, I suggest these two astronomer: Paris Pişmiş and Hakkı Boran Ögelman Thank you.

[slowe]

@ArifSolmaz Thanks for the suggestions.

[slowe]

For completeness as people seem to be stuck on Twitter, some more:

Tim O'Brien suggests Hanbury Brown, Jeremiah Horrocks, William Crabtree, Margaret Burbridge https://twitter.com/Tim_O_Brien/status/672522359815958530

Ben Gazeley suggests John Michell https://twitter.com/BGazeley/status/672524116625354752

Michele Bannister suggests Priscilla Bok https://twitter.com/astrokiwi/status/672499216539774977

Josh Peek suggests Slipher https://twitter.com/jegpeek/status/672449919354052608

[slowe]

@luaprelkniw @philbull Thanks for the suggestions.

[luaprelkniw]

You're welcome.

I have another suggestion: although well-known in the world of France and Québec, Hubert Reeves http://www.hubertreeves.info/E is almost entirely unknown in English-speaking countries.

Paul Winkler

Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2015 14:13:04 -0800 From: notifications@github.com To: cosmos-book.github.io@noreply.github.com CC: paul.winkler@hotmail.co.uk Subject: Re: [cosmos-book.github.io] Unsung heroes of astronomy (#1)

@luaprelkniw @philbull Thanks for the suggestions.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[reneortega]

Short paragraph about Paris Pişmiş. Paris Pişmiş is recognized as the first professional astronomer in Mexico. She was an Armenian-Turkish immigrant who worked at Harvard Collage Observatory and later went to Mexico in the 1940s to work at the recently founded Tonantzintla Observatory, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Prof. Pişmiş moved later to Tacubaya Observatory in Mexico City, part of UNAM, and then to the Institute of Astronomy after it was founded, where she remained until her passing. She was a founder and editor of the Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica from 1974, and editor of its precursor journal, the Boletín de los Observatorios de Tonantzintla y Tacubaya. Prominent Mexican astronomers such as Deborah Dultzin, Arcadio Poveda and Alfonso Serrano were students of Prof. Pişmiş. She influenced a whole generation, including pivotal figures such as Manuel Peimbert and Silvia Torres-Peimbert, current president of the IAU (2015-2018). More: https://aas.org/obituaries/paris-marie-pi%C5%9Fmi%C5%9F-1911-1999 http://www.ianyanmag.com/an-armenian-supernova-in-mexico-astronomer-marie-paris-pishmish/

[slowe]

@reneortega A very belated thanks for the addition.