Sidney Wolff

Sidney C. Wolff received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and then joined the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. During the 17 years she spent in Hawaii, the Institute for Astronomy developed Mauna Kea into the world's premier international observatory. She became Associate Director of the Institute for Astronomy in 1976 and Acting Director in 1983. During that period, she earned international recognition for her research, particularly on stellar...See more

Sidney C. Wolff received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and then joined the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. During the 17 years she spent in Hawaii, the Institute for Astronomy developed Mauna Kea into the world's premier international observatory. She became Associate Director of the Institute for Astronomy in 1976 and Acting Director in 1983. During that period, she earned international recognition for her research, particularly on stellar atmospheres and how they can help us understand the evolution, formation, and composition of stars. In 1984, she was named Director of the Kitt Peak National Observatory and in 1987 became Director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories. She was the first woman to head a major observatory in the United States. As Director of NOAO, she and her staff oversaw facilities used annually by nearly 1000 visiting scientists. During its early phases, she was Director of the Gemini Project, which is an international program to build two state-of-the-art 8m telescopes. She is currently on the scientific staff of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories where she is serving as project scientist for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. She has served as President of the American Astronomical Society. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Carleton College, a liberal arts school that excels in science education. With Andrew Fraknoi, she is founding editor of the Astronomy Education Review, an electronic journal devoted to education in astronomy and space science. The author of more than 70 professional articles, she has written a monograph, THE A-TYPE STARS: PROBLEMS AND PERSPECTIVES, as well as several astronomy textbooks. See less