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Bengt Strömgren | |
|---|---|
 Bengt Strömgren, 1957 | |
| Born | (1908-01-21)21 January 1908 |
| Died | 4 July 1987(1987-07-04) (aged 79) |
| Alma mater | University of Copenhagen |
| Known for | Strömgren Spheres,Strömgren photometric system, stellar chemistry |
| Awards | Bruce Medal 1959 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physics,Mathematics,Astronomy |
| Institutions | University of Chicago,Yerkes andMcDonald Observatory,Institute for Advanced Study |
Bengt Georg Daniel Strömgren (21 January 1908 – 4 July 1987) was aDanishastronomer andastrophysicist.[1][2]
Bengt Strömgren was born inGothenburg. His parents were Hedvig Strömgren (née Lidforss) andElis Strömgren, who was professor ofastronomy at theUniversity of Copenhagen and director of the University Observatory in Copenhagen. Bengt grew up in the professor's mansion surrounded with scientists, assistants, observers and guests. His father paced and promoted Bengt into a life with science, and Bengt's first paper was published already at the age of 14. He graduated from high school in 1925 and enrolled at the Copenhagen university. Only two years later, he graduated in astronomy andatomic physics, and during the following two years, he completed adoctoral degree, which was evaluated with the best marks in December 1929, when he was 21 years old.
He gained a great deal of useful experience from his studies intheoretical physics atNiels Bohr's Institute close by, and he was at the right place at the right time. He soon found out that he intended to use the fresh theoretical framework ofquantum physics in space, and investigate the applications ofquantum mechanics in stars. Obviously, questions ofnepotism were in play when he applied for an assistantship already in 1925, which he didn't get. But only one year later it was given to him anyway — he was the best, regardless of his employer being also his own father.
After being appointed as lecturer at the university in 1932, Strömgren was invited to theUniversity of Chicago in 1936 byOtto Struve. Going abroad for 18 months meant a lot to the young researcher, and when he went back toDenmark and to the risingnational socialism inEurope, he succeeded his father's professorship in 1940. During five years of isolation, under theGerman occupation of Denmark, he initiated the building of a new Danish Observatory, theBrorfelde Observatory. But after theSecond World War, Bengt Strömgren became tired of lacking state funding for the project, and with a stagnant national economy, he felt that he had to leave Danish research, which he did in 1951.
He went to theUnited States and became director of theYerkes andMcDonald Observatories, and stayed there for six years. In 1957, he was appointed the first professor of theoretical astrophysics at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he gotAlbert Einstein's office. He stayed at Princeton with his family until 1967, when he went back to his homeland Denmark, and became the next to the last resident in a series of great Danish scientists of theCarlsberg Mansion and Honor, which had earlier been occupied byNiels Bohr among others. In 1987, he died after a short period of illness.
Bengt Strömgren made momentous contributions to astrophysics. He found that thechemical composition ofstars was very much different than previously assumed. In the late 1930s, he found the relative abundance ofhydrogen to be nearly 70%, andhelium to be about 27%. Just before the war, he discovered the so-calledStrömgren Spheres — huge interstellar shells of ionized hydrogen around stars. And in the 1950s and 1960s, he pioneeredphotoelectric photometry with a novel four-colour system, now calledStrömgren photometric system. Apart from the Danish observatory of Brorfelde, Strömgren was active in the early organisation of the joint European observatory ofESO atLa Silla inChile.
Awards
Miscellaneous
