Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 23, 2007|Volume 35, Number 22

The 100th birthday of Dorrit Hoffleit (seated) was celebrated at a fete at the New Haven Lawn Club attended by her colleagues in the Department of Astronomy. Jeffrey Kenny, chair of the department, announced that a marble plaque honoring Hoffleit will be placed at the student observatory.

Yale astronomers conclude their
tribute to one of their 'stars

Yale's Department of Astronomy paid tribute to one of its own stars on
March 13 when it celebrated the 100th birthday of Dorrit Hoffleit, senior research associate, now retired.

The luncheon at the New Haven Lawn Club culminated in "The Hoffleit Centennial: A Year of Celebration," a tribute by the Department of Astronomy that began last April with a symposium honoring her scientific achievements.

The birthday fete included 70 friends and colleagues who, in the words of Professor Emeritus Pierre Demarque, Hoffleit's collaborator for 40 years, "gathered to express good wishes, gratitude and affection, and to salute her indomitable spirit."

In honor of Hoffleit's 100th birthday, a marble plaque will be placed next to the Stewartia tree that the department planted near the student observatory at the beginning of the Hoffleit Centennial year to honor her contributions as a scientist, astronomer, educator and chronicler, announced Jeffrey Kenny, chair of astronomy.

William Van Altena, professor of astronomy and another of Hoffleit's longtime collaborators, told Hoffleit that if the plaque included mention of all the ways in which she had enriched her colleagues' lives, it would be "substantially bigger than your tree."

In her autobiography, "Misfortunes as Blessings in Disguise," Hoffleit wrote that her interest in astronomy began when, as a young child, she watched fireballs appear to collide in the skies above her backyard. She went on to become an expert at determining spectroscopically the absolute brightness of stars -- a skill she put to use in the creation of the "Bright Star Catalogue," a compendium of information on the 9,110 brightest stars in the sky. She also co-authored "The General Catalogue of Trigonometric Stellar Parallaxes," containing precise distance measurements to 8,112 stars, information critical to understanding the kinematics of the Milky Way galaxy and the evolution of the solar neighborhood. She also wrote "Astronomy at Yale, 1701-1968," produced hundreds of scholarly papers and for 15 years provided "News Notes" on astronomical events and trends for Sky and Telescope magazine.

As director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory at Nantucket, a memorial to America's first woman astronomer, Hoffleit initiated a summer research program for undergraduates, primarily young women. Under her mentorship, 11 of these women went on to earn Ph.D.s in astronomy; collectively they discovered over 1,000 new variable stars and published over 90 research papers.

Hoffleit's many awards include the 1988 George van Biesbroeck Award for dedication to astronomy and the 1993 American Astronomical Society's Annenberg Prize for science education. She is the past president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. Asteroid Dorrit was named after her, and a Hoffleit Assistantship was established at the Mitchell Observatory to honor her work.

Although officially retired since 1975, Hoffleit continued to pursue her research well into her 90s.

Speaking at the birthday luncheon, Katherine Wiltshire, executive director of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame, described Hoffleit as one of the hall's "brightest stars," adding: "She not only serves as a powerful role model for young women but has devoted much of her life to mentoring and supporting their efforts to succeed in a non-traditional profession. Dorrit leads by example and her life is a testament to what women can achieve when they ignore those who would limit their galaxy."

An interview with Hoffleit is available online at www.cwhf.org/hall/hoffleit/hoffleit.htm.

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