Albert Whitford
Encyclopedia
Albert Edward Whitford was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 astronomer
Astronomer
An astronomer is a scientist who studies celestial bodies such as planets, stars and galaxies.Historically, astronomy was more concerned with the classification and description of phenomena in the sky, while astrophysics attempted to explain these phenomena and the differences between them using...

.

Whitford was born in Milton, Wisconsin
Milton, Wisconsin
Milton is a city in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,090 at the 2000 census .-History:The city was formed as a result of the 1967 merger of the villages of Milton and Milton Junction...

 and attended Milton College
Milton College
Milton College was a private college located in Milton, Wisconsin. Founded in 1844 as the Milton Academy, it closed in 1982. Its campus is now part of the Milton Historic District....

. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

. He served as the director of Washburn Observatory
Washburn Observatory
The Washburn Observatory is located at 1401 Observatory Drive on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. Completed in 1881, it was a major research facility for about 50 years. Now it is used primarily by the public during open houses and by students in introductory astronomy...

 from 1948 to 1958. From 1958 to 1968 he was the director of Lick Observatory
Lick Observatory
The Lick Observatory is an astronomical observatory, owned and operated by the University of California. It is situated on the summit of Mount Hamilton, in the Diablo Range just east of San Jose, California, USA...

. Later he served on the faculties of both the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...

 and the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Whitford was a pioneer in the field of photoelectric photometry
Photometry (astronomy)
Photometry is a technique of astronomy concerned with measuring the flux, or intensity of an astronomical object's electromagnetic radiation...

, greatly improving sensitivity. The Whitford reddening curve, quantifying the interstellar absorption of light, was important in the mapping of the distribution of stars in the Milky Way
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains the Solar System. This name derives from its appearance as a dim un-resolved "milky" glowing band arching across the night sky...

. He also studied the star
Star
A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...

s in galactic nuclear bulge
Bulge (astronomy)
In astronomy, a bulge is a tightly packed group of stars within a larger formation. The term almost exclusively refers to the central group of stars found in most spiral galaxies...

s.

In 1986 Whitford received the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
Henry Norris Russell Lectureship
The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship is awarded each year by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research.-Previous lecturers:This list of lecturers is from the American Astronomical Society's website....

 and in 1996 he was awarded the Bruce Medal
Bruce Medal
The Catherine Wolfe Bruce Gold Medal is awarded every year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific for outstanding lifetime contributions to astronomy. It is named after Catherine Wolfe Bruce, an American patroness of astronomy, and was first awarded in 1898...

.

The asteroid
Asteroid
Asteroids are a class of small Solar System bodies in orbit around the Sun. They have also been called planetoids, especially the larger ones...

 2301 Whitford
2301 Whitford
2301 Whitford is a main-belt asteroid discovered on November 20, 1965 by the Indiana Asteroid Program at Goethe Link Observatory.- External links :...

is named in his honor.

External links

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