Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit
| Dorrit Hoffleit | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 12, 1907 Florence, Alabama |
| Died | April 9, 2007 (aged 100) New Haven, Connecticut |
| Fields | Astronomy |
| Institutions | Harvard College Observatory, Ballistic Research Laboratory, Harvard University, Yale University, Maria Mitchell Observatory |
| Alma mater | Radcliffe College |
| Notable awards |
Carolyn Wilby Prize George Van Biesbroeck Prize (1988) |
Ellen Dorrit Hoffleit (March 12, 1907 – April 9, 2007) was an American senior research astronomer at Yale University. She is most widely known for her work in variable stars, astrometry, spectroscopy, meteors, and the Bright Star Catalog, as well as her mentorship of many young women and generations of astronomers.
Hoffleit's interest in astronomy started with the 1919 Perseid meteor shower that she saw with her mother. She earned her B.A. in 1928, graduating cum laude in mathematics, before working for the Harvard College Observatory searching for variable stars. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College and was hired as an astronomer at Harvard in 1948. She remained there until moving to Yale in 1956, where she stayed until her 1975 retirement.
At Yale she followed in the footsteps of Ida Barney, taking over her astrometric work, and of whom she later wrote "To know [her] was a pleasure, inspiration, and privilege, both at work and socially." Hoffleit also served as director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory on Nantucket Island from 1957 to 1978, where she ran summer programs (May–October) for more than 100 students, many of whom went on to successful careers in astronomy. In her final years at Yale, Hoffleit was tasked with teaching the most basic course on astronomy to undergraduates. Her passionate lectures in Davies Hall, usually with over 100 students, inspired and awed them. She thus engendered a lifelong interest in astronomy to young men and women, many of whom were simply satisfying a prerequisite to their undergraduate degrees.
During the mid 1950s, Hoffleit consulted for the U.S. Army's Ballistic Research Laboratories in "Doppler reductions."
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