Oral history interview with Albrecht Unsöld, 1984 February 24.

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Oral history interview with Albrecht Unsöld, 1984 February 24.

Munich during the 1920s, working with Arnold Sommerfeld and Gregor Wentzel. Comments on fellow students: Walter Heitler, Rudolf Peierls, and Helmuth Hönl. Comments on Karl Schwarzschild (Gustav Mie and Hendrik van de Hulst) and Peter Debye. Comments on work with Henry N. Russell, Walter S. Adams relating to the chemical composition of the sun, spectra of the stars and on abundance of hydrogen in stars; Rupert Wildt's work in 1938 on the negative hydrogen ion. Guest professorship at Yerkes Observatory working with Otto Struve on Tau Scorpii; publication of his book, Physik der Sternatmosphären in 1938. Impressions of other astronomers: Cecelia Payne Gaposchkin, Edwin Milne, Harlow Shapley, Ernest Öpik, Fred Hoyle; reminiscing about his meeting with Arthur Eddington at University of Cambridge; the Chandrasekhar-Eddington confrontation; editor of Zeitschrift für Astronomie (Walter Grotrian, Emanuel J. von der Pahlen). Work on radio astronomy in Kiel, Theorie der Thermischen Radiofrequenzstrahlung article published after the War. Establishment of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Discussion of the controversial article in Physikalische Blätter (1980).

Transcript, 30 pp.

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SNAC Resource ID: 8270517

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Universität München.

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Struve, Otto, 1897-1963

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Astronomer (astrophysics of stars, spectroscopy, interstellar studies, origin of universe) and administrator. On the staff of Yerkes Observatory, 1921-1932, director, 1932-1950; editor, ASTROPHYSICS JOURNAL, 1932-1947; on the astrophysics faculty, department chair, and director, Leuschner Observatory, University of California, Berkeley, 1950-1959; and director, National Radio Astronomy Observatory from 1959. From the description of Selected correspondence [microform], 1932-1945. (Unk...

Adams, Walter S. (Walter Sydney), 1876-1956

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Yerkes Observatory, located in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, is a facility of the University of Chicago's Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. The observatory opened in 1897 as the joint creation of three founders: William Rainey Harper, the first president of the University of Chicago; Professor George E. Hale, the observatory's first director; and Charles T. Yerkes, a wealthy Chicago businessman who provided funds for the erection of the observatory building. Known as the home of the last of t...

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Astronomer (astrophysics, solar system). Professor of Astrophysics, University of Maryland; Astronomer, Armagh Observatory (1948-1981); Fellow & Instructor, Moscow University & Observatory (1916-1919); Head of Astronomy Department, Turkestan University, Tashkent (1919-1921); Astronomer/Associate Professor, Tartu University (1921-1944); Research Associate/Visiting Lecturer, Harvard University & Observatory (1930-1934); Professor of Astronomy/Rector, Baltic University (1945-1948). See ...

Schwarzschild, K. (Karl), 1873-1916

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Karl Schwarzschild was an astronomer and physicist. From the description of Papers, 1892-1916. (American Philosophical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 17270746 From the guide to the K.(Karl) Schwarzschild papers, 1892-1916, 1892-1916, (American Philosophical Society) Astronomer (observational and theoretical). Assistant, Kuffner Observatory, Ottakring, Austria, 1896-1899; associate professor to professor and director of observatory, Universität Göttingen, 19...

Unsöld, Albrecht, 1905-

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Milne, Edward Arthur, 1896-1950

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Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften.

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Astrophysicist. B.A., Presidency College, Madras University, 1930. Ph. D., Cambridge University, 1933; Sc. D., 1942. Research Associate, Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago, 1937. Assistant Professor, University of Chicago, 1938; Associate Professor, 1942; Professor, 1944; Distinguished Service Professor, 1946; Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics, 1952. Managing editor, Astrophysical Journal, 1952-1971. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1983. From t...

Heitler, Walter, 1904-1981

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Mie, Gustav Adolf Feodor Wilhelm Ludwig, 1868-

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Hoyle, Fred, 1915-2001

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Astronomer and Fellow of the Royal Society. From the description of Papers. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 83660356 From the description of Letters. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82863606 From the description of Papers, 1905-1928. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78824422 Educated at Owen's College, Manchester and Trinity College, Cambridge. Senior Wrangler, 1904. Smith's Prizeman, 1907. Chief Assistant, Royal Observatory (Greenwich), 1906-1913. Plumian Prof...

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Peierls Rudolf E. (Rudolf Ernst), 1907-1995

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Theoretical physics (quantum theory of solids of electro-magnetic fields and of the solid nucleus; World War II work on atomic energy). Affiliations include: 1925, Berlin University as student of physics; 1926 transferred to University of Munich, Department of Theoretical Physics (A. Sommerfeld); 1928 transferred to Leipzig University, Department of Theoretical Physics (W. Heisenberg); and in 1929 to the Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (W. Pauli). 1929, Ph.D., Leipzig. Fall 1929 to Fall ...

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Sommerfeld, Arnold, 1868-1951

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Harwit, Martin, 1931-

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Astrophysicist. Martin Harwit served as professor of astronomy at Cornell University and as co-director of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology Program. In 1987 he was appointed director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. He received a Ph.D. in physics in 1960 from M.I.T. and taught at Cornell since 1962. Harwit's research interests have included observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, infrared astronomy, galaxy formation, and the history o...

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Astronomer (galaxies, photometry, spectroscopy) and administrator. Astronomer, Mount Wilson Observatory, 1914-1921; director, Harvard Observatory, 1921-1952; on the astronomy faculty at Harvard from 1952. From the description of Papers [microform], 1910-1923. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 80523781 Harlow Shapley (1885-1972) was an astronomer. Shapley served as director of the Harvard College Observatory and was a professor at Harvard University, eventually he became the Pai...