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Lyman Spitzer, Jr.
<html> <head> <title>Lyman Spitzer, Jr.</title> <meta name="googlebot" content="noodp"> <meta name="robots" content="noodp"> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="/silly-nndb-icon.png" /><style type="text/css"> <!-- .fotmbar { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: none} .fotmbar:hover { color: #FFFFFF; text-decoration: underline} .newslink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .newslink:hover { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink { color: #000000; text-decoration: none} .proflink:hover { color: blue; text-decoration: underline} .b1f, .b2f, .b3f, .b4f {font-size:1px; overflow:hidden; display:block;} .b1f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 5px;} .b2f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 3px;} .b3f {height:1px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 2px;} .b4f {height:2px; background:#e6e6e6; margin:0 1px;} .contentf {background: #e6e6e6; padding: 2px; } .contentf div {margin-left: 5px;} --> </style></head> <body bgcolor=#ffffff> <center> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr><td valign=top><table width=550 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td bgcolor=white><table width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" background="/nndb.gif"> <tr> <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top"><a href="http://www.nndb.com/"><img src="/title.gif" width="260" height="50" border=0 alt="NNDB"></a></td> <td><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="6"> <tr align="center"> <td width="25%" nowrap><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a beta version of NNDB</font></b></td> </tr> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="right" valign="middle"><b><font size="-1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <form action="http://search.nndb.com/search/nndb.cgi" method="get"> <input type="hidden" name="nndb" value="1"></input> <nobr>Search: <select name="omenu"> <option value="unspecified" selected>All Names</option> <option value="living">Living people</option> <option value="dead">Dead people</option> <option value="bands">Band Names</option> <option value="books">Book Titles</option> <option value="movies">Movie Titles</option> <option value="fulltext">Full Text</option> </select> for <input name="query" value="" size=24 maxlength=96> <input type=submit value="Search"> </font></b></nobr></form></td> </tr> </table> <!-- COPYRIGHT (C) 2008 SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED --> <!-- NO PART OF THIS WEBSITE MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION --> <!-- OF SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS (ON THE WEB, IN PRINT, OR OTHERWISE) --> <!-- --> <!-- SOYLENT COMMUNICATIONS --> <!-- PO BOX 4436, MOUNTAIN VIEW CA 94040 USA --> </td></tr><tr><td bgcolor=red height=2></td></tr><map name=fool><area coords="102,0,240,14" href="/people/866/000173347/bibliography/" alt="bibliography"></map><tr bgcolor=F0F0F0><td bgcolor=F0F0F0 style="padding: 0px 15px 15px 15px;"><img src="/red-profile-2.gif" align="right" height=15 width=240 border=0 usemap=#fool><br clear="all"><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor=F0F0F0><font size=+3 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b>Lyman Spitzer, Jr.</b></font><p><b>Born:</b> <a href="/lists/695/000106377/" class=proflink>26-Jun</a>-<a href="/lists/913/000105598/" class=proflink>1914</a><br><b>Birthplace:</b> <a href="/geo/743/000069536/" class=proflink>Toledo, OH</a><br><b>Died:</b> <a href="/lists/974/000106656/" class=proflink>31-Mar</a>-<a href="/lists/507/000106189/" class=proflink>1997</a><br><b>Location of death:</b> <a href="/geo/670/000069463/" class=proflink>Princeton, NJ</a><br><b>Cause of death:</b> Heart Failure<br><p><b>Gender:</b> Male<br><b>Religion:</b> <a href="/lists/873/000071660/" class=proflink>Presbyterian</a><br><b>Race or Ethnicity:</b> White<br><b>Sexual orientation:</b> Straight<br><b>Occupation:</b> <a href="/lists/628/000096340/" class=proflink>Astronomer</a>, <a href="/lists/629/000096341/" class=proflink>Physicist</a><br><b>Party Affiliation:</b> Democratic<p><b>Nationality:</b> United States<br><b>Executive summary:</b> Father of space telescopes<p><b>Military service:</b> US Navy (Division of War Research, WWII)<p>Astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer pioneered the study of the gas and dust that form the interstellar medium. In 1946, early in his career, he was the first scientist to suggest putting a telescope in space, where it could operate without the interference of the planet抯 atmosphere -- a bold idea in a time before the first man-made satellite had been launched. In the 1960s he designed the Copernicus Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, a small satellite which orbited the Earth from 1972-81. In the 1990s until the very day of his death, he worked analyzing data received from Hubble, which was essentially the space-based telescope he had proposed five decades earlier. Spitzer studied under <a href="/people/646/000167145/">Henry Norris Russell</a>, and in his long career he conducted important research in hot gases, plasma physics, stellar dynamics, thermonuclear fusion, and underwater sound. He is the namesake of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003, which still follows the Earth in its solar orbit.<p><b>Father:</b> Lyman Spitzer (boxmaker)<br><b>Wife:</b> Doreen Canaday Spitzer (four children)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Dionis Spitzer Griffin<br><b>Daughter:</b> Lydia Spitzer<br><b>Son:</b> Nicholas C. Spitzer (neurobiologist)<br><b>Daughter:</b> Sarah Spitzer<br><p> High School: Scott High School, Toledo, OH (attended)<br> High School: <a href="/edu/571/000068367/">Phillips Academy Andover (1931)</a><br> University: <a href="/edu/480/000068276/">BS Physics, Yale University (1935)</a><br> Scholar: <a href="/edu/214/000081968/">Trinity College, Cambridge University (1935-36)</a><br> University: <a href="/edu/549/000068345/">MS Physics, Princeton University (1937)</a><br> University: <a href="/edu/549/000068345/">PhD Astrophysics, Princeton University (1938)</a><br> Scholar: <a href="/edu/473/000068269/">Astrophysics, Harvard University (1938-39)</a><br> Teacher: <a href="/edu/480/000068276/">Astrophysics, Yale University (1939-41, 1946-47)</a><br> Professor: <a href="/edu/549/000068345/">Astrophysics, Princeton University (1947-97)</a><br> Administrator: <a href="/edu/549/000068345/">Director, Princeton Observatory, Princeton University (1947-79)</a><br><p> <a href="/honors/276/000099976/">Bruce Medal</a> 1973<br> <a href="/honors/753/000167252/">Henry Draper Medal</a> 1974<br> <u>James Clerk Maxwell Prize</u> 1975<br> <a href="/honors/854/000117503/">Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal</a> 1978 (with <a href="/people/559/000055394/">James Van Allen</a>)<br> <a href="/honors/636/000042510/">National Medal of Science</a> 1979<br> <a href="/honors/052/000111716/">Crafoord Prize</a> 1985<br> <a href="/org/811/000055646/">American Academy of Arts and Sciences</a> <br> <a href="/org/866/000117515/">American Astronomical Society</a> President (1960-62)<br> <a href="/org/560/000055395/">American Geophysical Union</a> <br> <a href="/org/640/000052484/">American Philosophical Society</a> <br> <a href="/org/496/000071283/">American Physical Society</a> <br> <u>Astronomical Society of the Pacific</u> <br> <a href="/org/456/000104144/">Council for a Livable World</a> <br> <a href="/org/692/000054530/">National Academy of Sciences</a> <br> <a href="/org/052/000086791/">Royal Astronomical Society</a> Foreign Member<br> <a href="/lists/919/000095634/">Asteroid Namesake</a> 2160 Spitzer<br> <a href="/lists/516/000044384/">English Ancestry</a> <br> <p> <b>Author of books:</b><br> <i>Physics of Fully Ionized Gases</i> (<tt>1956</tt>)<br><i>Diffuse Matter in Space</i> (<tt>1968</tt>)<br><i>Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium</i> (<tt>1978</tt>)<br><i>Searching between the Stars</i> (<tt>1982</tt>)<br><i>Dreams, Stars, and Electrons: Selected Writings of Lyman Spitzer, Jr.</i> (<tt>1997</tt>)<br><p> <br> <p> <table> <tr> <td align=right valign=middle style="padding-right: 5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 22px; font-style: italic; color: #ff3333;">New!</span><br> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/" class="fotmlink" style="font-family: Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; color: #dd0000;">NNDB MAPPER</a></td> <td valign=middle align=right style="border-left: 1px solid #bbb; padding-left: 5px;">Create a map starting with</td> <td valign=middle align=right><a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=173347"><img src="/man.gif" border=0 style="padding: 2px;"></a></td> <td align=left valign=middle> <a href="http://mapper.nndb.com/start/?id=173347">Lyman Spitzer, Jr.</a></td> </tr> </table> <font face="Trebuchet MS, arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Requires Flash 7+ and Javascript.</font> <br><br><p> <font size=-1>Do you know something we don't?</font><br> <font size=-1><a href="http://commentary.nndb.com/submit/feedback/?id=173347" rel="nofollow">Submit a correction or make a comment about this profile</a></font><br> <p> <br><br><p><font size=-1>Copyright ©2019 Soylent Communications</font><p> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </td> <td width=180 align="center" valign="top" style="padding: 0px 0px 8px 25px;"></td></tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>