Robert A. Schommer | |
|---|---|
 Robert A. Schommer | |
| Born | (1946-12-09)December 9, 1946 Chicago, United States |
| Died | December 12, 2001(2001-12-12) (aged 55) La Serena, Chile |
| Alma mater | University of Washington |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy, astrophysics |
Robert A. Schommer (December 9, 1946 – December 12, 2001) was an American observationalastronomer. He was a professor atRutgers University and later a project scientist for the U.S. office of theGemini Observatory Project at theCerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) inChile. He was known for his wide range of research interests, fromstellar populations tocosmology.
Schommer was born inChicago, Illinois to Harvey and Bea Schommer. He received a B.A. in Physics from theUniversity of Chicago in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from theUniversity of Washington in 1977, where he continued for one year as instructor. Following two years in seminary college in Chicago, he held postdoctoral positions atCaltech (as Chaim Weizmann Fellow), theHale Observatories, theUniversity of Chicago, andCambridge University (as NATO Postdoctoral Fellow) before joining the Department of Physics at the State University of New Jersey. He became increasingly unhappy with the department's unwillingness to support astronomy, and in 1990 he moved to CTIO in Chile where he remained until his death in 2001.
Schommer carried out some of the firstcharge-coupled device (CCD) imaging studies ofLarge Magellanic Cloud star clusters, published in a paper on what is now called the "short distance" to the LMC.[1] His work onstar clusters in theMagellanic Clouds and the galaxyM33 were fundamental in providing a basis for our understanding of the chemical histories of those galaxies.
Schommer was an active member of theHigh-z Supernova Search Team and co-authored their 1998 paper arguing that we live in an accelerating universe with a cosmological constant.[2] In honor of this work, he was awarded the AURA Science Achievement Award in 1999.[citation needed]
Schommer also worked onclusters of galaxies and their use in establishing theextragalactic distance scale;dark matter indwarf galaxies; and designed and built aFabry–Pérot interferometer and oversaw its installation at the Cerro-Tololo Observatory.
In his final year at CTIO, Schommer took over the management of the U.S. Gemini Project Office as Project Scientist. He was an advocate for a strong national observatory that would allow U.S. astronomers access to world-class, ground-based facilities. At the time of his death, Schommer was in the process of moving toTucson, Arizona to establish a U.S. Gemini Science Center and a remote observing facility.
Schommer committed suicide in La Serena, Chile, on December 12, 2001.[3] He was survived by his wife Iris Labra and three children Paulina, Andrea, and Robert.
Following his death, theAssociation of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) established the Schommer Children's Fund to assist the Schommer family in meeting the future educational expenses of their children.[4]