Paul William Hodge | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1934-11-08)November 8, 1934 |
| Died | November 10, 2019(2019-11-10) (aged 85) |
| Alma mater | Yale University (BS) Harvard University (PhD) |
| Known for | stellar populations of galaxies |
| Children | 3[1] |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of California at Berkeley University of Washington |
Paul W. Hodge ((1934-11-08)November 8, 1934 -(2019-11-10)November 10, 2019) was an Americanastronomer whose principal area of research was the stellar populations ofgalaxies.
Born inSeattle,Washington on November 8, 1934, Hodge grew up in the neighboring town ofSnohomish. As a youth, his interests were primarily in physics, astronomy and music. He obtained a BS degree in physics atYale University in 1956 and a PhD degree inastronomy atHarvard University in 1960. He was aNational Science Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow at theMt. Wilson andPalomar Observatories before joining the faculty of theUniversity of California at Berkeley in 1961. He moved to theUniversity of Washington in 1965, where he remained until 2006, and became ProfessorEmeritus of Astronomy. Between 1984 and 2004 he was the Editor in Chief of theAstronomical Journal.
Hodge was author or co-author of over 550 research papers and 28 books. He also talked at professional meetings. Most of the papers are concerned with the extragalactic universe, especially nearby galaxies, their distances and their histories.[2][3][4] Works on theMagellanic Clouds, carried out at observatories inSouth Africa,Australia andChile, included a study of youngstellar associations, of which he and his students published the first catalog.[5] With colleagueFrances Woodworth Wright, he published two widely used atlases of theMagellanic Clouds.[6][7] He was the first to study the structure of theLocal Groupdwarf galaxies[8] and carried out the first large-scale survey of star-forming regions (HII regions) inspiral galaxies, in which he and his students mapped a total of 13011 of these objects.[9] He and his former student,K. Krienke, discovered 652 star clusters in theAndromeda Galaxy (M31).[10]
In the early years of his career he also did pioneering work on the collection ofinterplanetary dust from theupper atmosphere. With his graduate student,Donald Brownlee, he was the first to use high-altitude aircraft (e. g.,B52s andU2s) to collect candidatemeteoritic dust particles.[11] Together, they also investigated meteoritic dust fromdeep seasediments and from theMoon. In related research, he collected and studied meteoritic particles in the soil surrounding terrestrialmeteorite craters.[12]
A long-term mountain enthusiast, Hodge hiked extensively in theCascade Mountains and published six books related to mountains and mountain trails. In 2001, theasteroid 14466 was named "Hodge" in his honor.
