Herget, Paul, 1908-

Astronmer. Cincinnati Observatory, 1931-1940; Director, 1943-; Lick Observatory, 1935-1936; U. S. Naval Observatory, 1942-1946.

Astronomer.

Paul Herget graduated from Withrow High School in Cincinnati and entered the University of Cincinnati in 1926 as a student in Civil Engineering. After a few weeks, he withdrew and took a job as a surveyor to earn money for school. In 1927, Herget re-enrolled at UC as a mathematics major. He graduated in 1931 with an A.B. degree. Upon graduation, he was offered a position as an assistant at the Cincinnati Observatory, which would allow him to continue graduate studies at UC part-time. He completed his Ph.D. at UC in 1935 with a dissertation on the computations of orbits of newly discovered minor planets. Herget received an Alexander Morrison Fellowship and spent one year at the University of California as a postdoctoral research associate.

During World War II he served in the Nautical Almanac Office of the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1942 until 1946. There he instituted the use of an IBM tabulator and worked on the Air Almanac, the Nautical Almanac, and the "Submarine Book." Herget's knowledge of tabulating equipment and computers led to him becoming a consultant in a variety of related fields: The Manhattan District (atom bomb project), Argonne National Laboratory (U.S. Atomic Energy Commission), Mapping and Charting Laboratory, Project Atlas, Project Vanguard, and Project Mercury.

Herget was appointed director of the Cincinnati Observatory in 1943. In 1947, he began directing the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union, and received at Cincinnati a complete collection of all observations and computations concerning the minor planets from all over the world.

In 1962, he was elected to the National Academy of Science, and in 1965 was awarded the James Craig Watson gold medal by the Academy in recognition of his research contributions. Also in 1965 he was appointed Distinguished Service Professor of Astronomy at the University of Cincinnati, and was the recipient of the William Howard Taft Medal for Notable Achievement in Life from the UC Alumni Association. He died in 1981