Donald Edward Osterbrock

Donald Edward Osterbrock ( born July 13, 1924 in Cincinnati, † January 11, 2007 in Santa Cruz ) was an American astronomer.

Osterbrock grew up in Cincinnati (Ohio ). He was a student of Subramanyan Chandrasekhar at the University of Chicago where he earned his doctorate in 1952. Later he worked at Princeton University, the University of Wisconsin and the California Institute of Technology. Since 1973 he was at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where until 1981 he headed the Lick Observatory in 1973.

Osterbrock dealt particularly with spectroscopic observations of active galactic nuclei and the physics of the ionized gas in these objects and nebulae in our galaxy. He is the author of an influential textbook on these topics.

Writings (selection )

• Astrophysics of Gaseous nebulae, 1974, ISBN 0-7167-0348-3
• Astrophysics of Gaseous nebulae and active galactic nuclei, 1989, ISBN 0-935702-22-9
• Walter Baade A Life in Astrophysics, 2001, ISBN 0-691-04936- X

Honors

The asteroid ( 6107 ) Osterbrock was named after him.

Obituaries

• Tim Stephens: Donald Osterbrock, eminent astronomer and former director of Lick Observatory, at age 82, this site the University of California, Santa Cruz, January 11, 2007.
• Jeremy Pearce: Donald E. Osterbrock, 82, Who Studied the Cores of Galaxies, This. In: New York Times. 27. January 2007.