Hyron Spinrad: Difference between revisions

'''Hyron Spinrad''' (1934-2015) was an [[United States|American]] [[astronomer]]. His research has ranged from the study of [[planet]] [[atmosphere]]s to the evolution of [[galaxies]]. {{As of|2010}} he was an [[emeritus professor]] of [[astronomy]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. He died December 7, 2015.{{fact|date=December 2015}}

Spinrad was born in New York in 1934. After his family moved to [[California]], he received a [[Bachelor of Arts]] in astronomy at UC Berkeley. Following graduation, he enrolled in the [[US Army]], and began work in the [[National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency#Army Map Service .28AMS.29 .2F U.S. Army Topographic Command .28USATC.29|Army Map Service]].<ref name="oral_history">{{cite web | title = Oral History Transcript — Dr. Hyron Spinrad | url = http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4899.html | accessdate = 2010-04-27}}</ref> After two years in the army, he applied to and was accepted to the graduate program at UC Berkeley in 1957. He earned his [[PhD]] in 1961, writing his thesis on stellar populations in galactic nuclei.<ref name="Spinrad_thesis">{{cite journal | author = Spinrad, H. | title = Stellar Populations in the Nuclei of Galaxies | journal = Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific | volume = 73 | issue = 434 | pages = 336–337 | date = 1961 | bibcode = 1961PASP...73..336S | doi = 10.1086/127702}}</ref><ref name="berkeley_astro">{{cite web | title = Hyron Spinrad, Professor, Berkeley Astronomy Department | url = http://astro.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/spinrad.html | accessdate = 2010-04-27}}</ref> He then took a position as a research scientist at the [[Jet Propulsion Laboratory]], where he performed [[spectroscopic]] studies of [[Solar System]] [[planet]]s and smaller bodies. In 1964 Spinrad was invited to return to Berkeley as a professor, and in 1968 he received tenure.<ref name="oral_history"/><ref name="berkeley_astro"/> He died December 7, 2015.{{fact|date=December 2015}}

Spinrad has pursued research in a variety of areas of astronomy, including stellar composition, the formation and evolution of galaxies, and the composition of the atmospheres of [[Solar System]] [[planet]]s and [[comet]]s. These diverse topics are united in that Spinrad primarily relied upon measurements of [[spectral line]]s ([[spectroscopy]]) in his work.<ref name="King1999">