Emma Vyssotsky

Emma Vyssotsky (October 23, 1894 – May 12, 1975, née Emma T. R. Williams) was an American astronomer who was honored with the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy in 1946.<ref name=":1" />

Biography

Emma earned her bachelor's degree in mathematics at Swarthmore College in 1916<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book (also available on archive.org</ref> and worked at Smith College as an astronomy<ref name=":0" />/mathematics<ref name=":1" /> demonstrator for a year before finding work at an insurance company as an actuary. In 1927, after receiving a Whitney Fellowship and a Bartol Scholarship, she enrolled in astronomy at Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard).<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> There, she worked with Cecilia Payne on the "spectral line contours of hydrogen and ionized calcium throughout the spectral sequence."<ref name=":0" />

Emma received her PhD in astronomy from Harvard College in 1930 for her dissertation titled, A Spectrophotometric Study of A Stars.<ref name=":0" /> At the time, she was only the third individual to be awarded a PhD in astronomy from Harvard.<ref name=":1" />

She followed her husband, astronomer Alexander N. Vyssotsky, to the University of Virginia, where he was offered a professorship; she was offered an instructor position.<ref name=":1" /> She spent her astronomy career at the McCormick Observatory at the university,<ref name=":0" /> where her specialty was the motion of stars and the kinematics of the Milky Way. The couple worked together.

[They were] studying stellar parallaxes by applying trigonometric functions to observations made on multiple photographic exposures. They discovered many of these parallaxes by attaching a special objective prism to the observatory's astrograph. Their research led to accurate calculations of stellar motions and the determination of the structure of galaxies.<ref name=":1" />

She worked at the observatory "for more than a dozen years" before the university promoted her to professor in 1945, but by then she had taken a medical leave of absence after contracting a debilitating illness, Malta Fever, which restricted her activities. Still, she continued to publish.<ref name=":1" />

Personal life

Emma Williams married the Russian-born astronomer Alexander N. Vyssotsky in 1929; they published jointly and worked together at the McCormick Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia.<ref name=":0" /> They had one son, Victor A. Vyssotsky (a mathematician and computer scientist), who was involved in the Multics project and co-created the Darwin computer game.

Emma died in Winter Park, Florida two years after her husband's death.<ref name=":1" />

Awards

In 1946, she was awarded the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of her contributions to the field of stellar spectra.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Select publications

Emma published much of her research under the name E. T. Williams. The couple would alternate the lead author role on their joint papers, with her name appearing first sometimes, and his name appearing first at other times.<ref name=":1" />

• Vyssotsky, E. T. W. (1929). A Spectrophotometric Study of A Stars (Doctoral dissertation, Radcliffe College).
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal
• Template:Cite journal

External links

• Alexander N. Vyssotsky (McCormick Museum)