Henry Norris Russell
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Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS HFRSE FRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he developed Russell–Saunders coupling, which is also known as LS coupling.<ref>David H. DeVorkin, Henry Norris Russell - google books</ref><ref>George Kean Sweetnam, The Command of Light - google books</ref><ref name="nas">Template:Biographical Memoirs</ref><ref name="mnrasObit">Obituary MNRAS 118 (1958) 311</ref><ref name="ObsObit">Obituary Obs 77 (1957) 67</ref><ref name="pasObit">Obituary PASP 69 (1957) 223</ref><ref name="DeVorkin">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Life
[edit]Russell was born on 25 October 1877, at Oyster Bay, New York, the son of Rev Alexander Gatherer Russell (1845-1911) and his wife, Eliza Hoxie Norris.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
After graduating from Princeton Preparatory School in 1893, he studied astronomy at Princeton University, obtaining his B.A. in 1897 and his doctorate in 1900, studying under Charles Augustus Young.<ref name=DeVorkin/> From 1903 to 1905, he worked at the Cambridge Observatory with Arthur Robert Hinks as a research assistant of the Carnegie Institution and came under the strong influence of George Darwin.
He returned to Princeton to become an instructor in astronomy (1905–1908), assistant professor (1908–1911), professor (1911–1927) and research professor (1927–1947). He was also the director of the Princeton University Observatory from 1912 to 1947 where Charlotte Moore Sitterly helped him measure and calculate the properties of stars.
He died in Princeton, New Jersey on 18 February 1957 at the age of 79.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He is buried in Princeton Cemetery.
Family
[edit]In November 1908 Russell married Lucy May Cole (1881-1968). They had four children. Their youngest daughter, Margaret Russell (1914-1999), married the astronomer Frank K. Edmondson in the 1930s.
Published work
[edit]Russell co-wrote an influential two-volume textbook in 1927 with Raymond Smith Dugan and John Quincy Stewart: Astronomy: A Revision of Young’s Manual of Astronomy (Ginn & Co., Boston, 1926–27, 1938, 1945). This became the standard astronomy textbook for about two decades. There were two volumes: the first was The Solar System and the second was Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy. The textbook popularized the idea that a star's properties (radius, surface temperature, luminosity, etc.) were largely determined by the star's mass and chemical composition, which became known as the Vogt–Russell theorem (including Heinrich Vogt who independently discovered the result). Since a star's chemical composition gradually changes with age (usually in a non-homogeneous fashion), stellar evolution results.
Russell dissuaded Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her thesis, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. He realized she was correct four years later after deriving the same result by different means. In his paper Russell credited Payne with discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth but never shared the rewards of the fame he readily accepted for her work which he’d failed to recognize until years later.<ref name='newnham'>Template:Cite web</ref>
Awards and honors
[edit]- Member of the American Philosophical Society (1913)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences (1918)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1921)<ref name="AAAS">Template:Cite web</ref>
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (1921)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Lalande Prize (1922)
- Henry Draper Medal from the National Academy of Sciences (1922)<ref name=Draper>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Bruce Medal (1925)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Rumford Prize (1925)<ref name=Rumford>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Franklin Medal (1934)
- Janssen Medal from the French Academy of Sciences (1936)
- Foreign Member of the Royal Society (1937)<ref name="frs">Template:Cite journal</ref>
- Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1938)
- Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1946)<ref name=AAS>Template:Cite web</ref>
- Asteroid 1762 Russell
References
[edit]External links
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- Oral history interview transcript with Margaret Russell Edmondson on 21 April 1977, American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives - Margaret Russell Edmondson was Russell's youngest daughter
- Pages with broken file links
- 1877 births
- 1957 deaths
- People from Oyster Bay (town), New York
- American astronomers
- American astrophysicists
- Princeton University alumni
- Princeton University faculty
- Scientists from Princeton, New Jersey
- Burials at Princeton Cemetery
- Recipients of the Bruce Medal
- Recipients of the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Foreign members of the Royal Society
- Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
- Members of the French Academy of Sciences
- Scientists from New York (state)
- Recipients of Franklin Medal
- Members of the American Philosophical Society