Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (1919–2020)

doi:10.1126/science.abc6555

GSTDTAP > 气候变化

DOI	10.1126/science.abc6555
	Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (1919–2020)
	Alec Boksenberg
	2020-05-29
发表期刊	Science
出版年	2020
英文摘要	World-celebrated observational astronomer and astrophysicist Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (known as Margaret) died on 5 April at age 100. Margaret was a brilliant researcher, innovator, leader, and inspiration to others. She greatly advanced knowledge of the properties of stars and distant galaxies and, most famously, demonstrated with colleagues how almost all elements are fabricated from hydrogen within stars. By both practice and example, she was a force for gender equality in science and antidiscrimination in all forms. She served as the first female director of key scientific bodies and institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom. Margaret was born in 1919 in Davenport, England. By the age of 12, she was consuming substantial books on astronomy. She graduated from University College London (UCL) in 1939 with a degree in astronomy with concentrations in mathematics and physics. Particularly attracted by the physical complexity of stars, Margaret enrolled as a graduate student at UCL while looking after the telescope instruments of the University of London Observatory at Mill Hill. During World War II, she worked on spectroscopic stellar research, taking advantage of the unusually dark skies created by blackouts and often sheltering from nearby German bomb blasts. She finished her Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics in 1943 and published her first scientific paper in 1946. In 1947, she met her husband to be, Geoffrey Burbidge, when he enrolled in the physics Ph.D. program at UCL. They married in 1948, soon after she inspired him to turn to astrophysics by inviting him to the observatory where she had become acting director. They moved in 1950 to the United States in search of telescopes and sites superior to those in the United Kingdom. In response to her first job application, Margaret received a letter saying the position was not open to women. In 1951, she was welcomed by the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. Later, she applied to observe at the Mount Wilson Observatory in California but was denied, so Geoffrey applied instead. Margaret succeeded in using the observatory through subterfuge—she posed as Geoffrey's assistant, whereas the reverse was true. On an extended visit to the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge, England, in 1955 to 1956, Margaret—who had already made many substantial observational discoveries—played a crucial role in the intensive work that produced one of the most important discoveries in the history of astrophysical research to this day. Along with Geoffrey, physicist William Fowler, and astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, Margaret demonstrated in extraordinary breadth and depth that the bulk of all elements in the Universe were synthesized within stars through progressive stages of nuclear fusion and final outburst. Along with Fred Hoyle and Geoffrey, Margaret favored the steady-state theory of the Universe, which postulates that the Universe is constantly generating new matter to counter its own expansion, as opposed to the Big Bang theory, which states that there was a definite beginning. She contributed evidence for the steady-state theory through her observations, although her important work on the then-mysterious fast-moving quasars (now recognized to be distant galaxies powered by immense central black holes) suggested a different explanation. A chance discovery by others led to wide acceptance of the Big Bang theory, but Margaret's persistent radical work should be celebrated as revolutionary thinking that spurred efforts toward further observations and inspired new theories to progress to a conclusion. Margaret was well known for her work opposing professional discrimination against women. Perhaps remembering the cunning strategy required to conduct her own early observatory work, she often advised women to be relentless in finding alternative routes when something obstructed their path to a goal. In 1971, she declined the American Astronomical Society's influential Annie Jump Cannon Award, given exclusively to women, because she felt that it was itself discriminatory. She held many top leadership and administrative posts, including director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in the United Kingdom from 1973 to 1975, president of the American Astronomical Society from 1976 to 1978, and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (the publisher of Science ) in 1983. From 1979 to 1988, she was the first director of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, where she worked from 1962 until her retirement. She was inducted into the Women's Museum of California Hall of Fame in 2003. Asteroid (5490) Burbidge was named after her. I got to know Margaret through small scientific social gatherings in Cambridge and London, at which we exposed, explored, and debated ideas, sometimes vehemently but always in good humor. Margaret was calm, softspoken, and polite. Once, while discussing the Hubble Space Telescope Faint Object Spectrograph that she had helped develop, she showed me an old photographic record of a faint spectrum she had obtained from the ground. At first, I could see nothing on it except for a very faint, grainy haze. Then, with a broad smile, she tilted the photograph on its long side, visually condensing the image vertically and bringing the spectrum well into view. We both laughed at how creative thinking could provide clarity. Throughout Margaret's life, she showed that in what was (and remains) a so-called man's world, women can and should be recognized for their brilliance and rise to the greatest heights of achievement and fame. Margaret did so with graciousness, humanity, and a drive to help others along the way. She made a difference not only to her field but to all scientists who can look to her as an example of persisting despite obstacles.
领域	气候变化 ; 资源环境
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文献类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/271750
专题	气候变化资源环境科学
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Alec Boksenberg. Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (1919–2020)[J]. Science,2020.
APA	Alec Boksenberg.(2020).Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (1919–2020).Science.
MLA	Alec Boksenberg."Eleanor Margaret Burbidge (1919–2020)".Science (2020).