The Story
Ann Underhill was one of the first Canadian women to pursue a career in astrophysics. Her life's work has been on the hottest stars, and on the nature and properties of winds from young and old stars. She is one of a rare few who ever combined five decades of fundamental astronomical innovations to understand stars. In over 200 publications Underhill has shown how stars free themselves of the cloak of material which shrouds them as they are born, and how their winds affect star's evolution. A paper (ApJ Supplement, 1995) concludes towards the end "My work on Wolf-Rayet stars is now done". The paper itself is part V of a year-long tour-de-force summarizing her ideas which have evolved since her entry in the field in the late 1940's. Underhill has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard and held a major research post at NASA where she helped to develop satellites that observe astronomical objects. Ann Underhill passed away at the age of 83 in Vancouver, BC on July 3, 2003. Sources: "Trailblazers: Women Talk About Changing Canada"; "Women in Chemistry and Physics"
Career ideas:
- research scientist, physics
- research scientist, electronics
- research scientist, communications
- research scientist, aerospace
- research scientist, remote sensing
- nuclear physicist
- optics physicist
- plasma physicist
- solid state physicist
- astrophysicist
- cosmologist
- experimental physicist
The Person
- Birthdate
- June 12, 1920
- Birthplace
- Vancouver, BC
- Date of Death
- July 3, 2003
- Place of Death
- Vancouver, BC
- Residence
- Victoria, BC
- Family Members
-
- Father: Fredric Clare Underhill, an early European immigrants to Vancouver, BC
- Mother: Irene Anna Creery
- Other Interests
- Birding, choir
- Title
- Honorary Professor
- Office
- UBC
- Status
- Deceased
- Degrees
-
- BA, UBC (Honours Chem. and Physics), 1942
- MA (Physics and Math.), UBC, 1944
- PhD, Chicago, 1948
- Awards
-
- Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, 1985
- Last Updated
- March 5, 2019
- Popularity
- 41479
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