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Martin Schwarzschild

Born: 31-May-1912
Birthplace: Potsdam, Germany
Died: 10-Apr-1997
Location of death: Langhorne, PA
Cause of death: Heart Failure

Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Astronomer, Physicist
Party Affiliation: Democratic

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Structure and Evolution of the Stars

Military service: US Army Intelligence (WWII, 1st Lt.)

Fleeing Nazi Germany, Martin Schwarzschild came to America, and was twice decorated for his service in Army Intelligence during World War II. An acclaimed astrophysicist, he helped develop the theories of stellar structure and evolution and of galactic structure. In his best-known papers, he calculated the helium content of the sun, showed how stars become red giants, and studied pulsating stars and differential solar rotation. He headed the Stratoscope project in the late 1950s, which took scientific instruments to the limits of the earth's atmosphere, allowing unprecedented clarity in photographs of solar granules and sunspots, showing convection in the solar atmosphere, and charting the infrared spectra of planets, stars, and the nuclei of galaxies. His 1958 book Structure and Evolution of the Stars became a standard text for a generation of astrophysicists. His father was physicist Karl Schwarzschild (who died while the younger Schwarzschild was still a toddler) and his uncle was physicist Robert Emden.

Father: Karl Schwarzschild (astrophysicist, b. 1873, d. 1916)
Mother: Else Posenbach Schwarzschild (d. 1950)
Sister: Agathe Schwarzschild Thornton (literature teacher)
Brother: Alfred Schwarzschild
Wife: Barbara Cherry Schwarzschild (m. 24-Aug-1945, no children)

    University: PhD Astronomy, University of Göttingen (1935)
    Teacher: Astronomy, University of Oslo (1936-37)
    Teacher: Astronomy, Harvard University (1937-40)
    Teacher: Astronomy, Columbia University (1940-47)
    Professor: Astronomy, Princeton University (1947-79)

    National Medal of Science 1997 (posthumous)
    Balzan Prize 1994 (with Fred Hoyle)
    Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal 1969
    Bruce Medal 1965
    Eddington Medal 1963
    Henry Draper Medal 1960
    Guggenheim Fellowship 1955
    Legion of Merit 1945
    Bronze Star 1945
    American Academy of Arts and Sciences
    American Astronomical Society Vice President (1967-70), President (1970-72)
    American Philosophical Society
    International Astronomical Union Vice President (1964-70)
    National Academy of Sciences 1956
    Planned Parenthood
    Royal Society 1996
    Asteroid Namesake 4463 Marschwarzschild
    Naturalized US Citizen 1942
    German Ancestry

Author of books:
Structure and Evolution of the Stars (1958)


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