Whitford Lecture Series

About Albert Edward Whitford

By any measure, Albert Whitford was one of the greats of 20th century astronomy: Bruce medalist, Russell Lecturer, and President of the AAS, but he became an astronomer more-or-less by accident. He was best known as one of the pioneers of photoelectric photometry.

He was a Physics grad student here in Madison in the early 1930s when Washburn Observatory Director Joel Stebbins hired him to design and build a better electronic amplifier for photometry. Together, Stebbins and Whitford were essentially the only ones doing photoelectric astronomy in the 30s. Whitford became a faculty member here at UW in 1938 and Director of Washburn when Stebbins retired in 1948. About then he started using the new IR detectors developed during the war to make some of the first astronomical measurements at 2 microns. These IR observations enabled the derivation of the Whitford reddening curve, revealing some properties of interstellar dust. He led the astronomy group to become a department in L&S and to move to Sterling from the Washburn building. He also raised the funds to build the 36-inch at Pine Bluff.

Just after PBO was dedicated in 1958 he left to become Director of Lick Observatory, where he oversaw the completion of the 120-inch reflector and the difficult move from Mt. Hamilton to the very new UC Santa Cruz campus. Somehow he also found time to lead the first decadal survey laying out research priorities in astrophysics. After stepping down from the directorship in 1968 he continued as a faculty member (and was my first advisor in grad school) until mandatory retirement a few years later. After retirement, he continued to be active in research, mostly using Cerro Tololo in studies of stars in the nuclear bulge of the Milky Way, and still published papers up to nearly age 90. He mentored several grad students who continued these bulge studies. Personally, I always appreciated my opportunities to talk with him on my visits back to Santa Cruz. Just past age 90 he moved back to Madison to be closer to family and I continued to enjoy talking with him in the office he was given here. He died in Madison in 2002, having outlived most of his contemporaries.

Written by University of Chicago Emeritus Professor Kyle Cudworth