William van Altena

Professor of Astronomy

Bill Van Altena, B.A., Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, faculty member at Yale since 1974: You are a giant in the study of Astrometry, the branch of Astronomy that acquires knowledge of the structure and dynamic of star clusters and our galaxy by measuring the small motions of the stars over many years. In the great Yale tradition of Astrometry, dating back to the 19th century, when Yale was unsurpassed in the field, you have led the largest Astrometry group in the country, and are the person most responsible for keeping it unsurpassed. You were hired from the Yerkes Observatory at Chicago partly to take over the Yale Southern Proper Motion Program, and so you have done, working for 30 years to see that the survey would be brought to a successful conclusion, and keeping the international collaboration going through thick and thin. Nearly completed, the project is already a great scientific success and will provide the basis for a new high precision model of the galaxy.

But even this is only a small part of what you have accomplished. You were the lead author and driving force behind the fourth edition of the General Catalogue of Trigometric Stellar Paralaxxes, containing 15,994 parallaxes for 8,112 stars. It was published on December 25th, 1995, to commemorate the many times over the years in astronomy meetings that you were asked when the new edition would come out—and you always said: “By Christmas.” You have been a leader in the development of Astrometric techniques, used throughout the world, and were a major architect and contributor to the Hubble Space telescope, ensuring that the telescope would point accurately and produce stunning images of the universe. You honored the past in the conferences you galvanized for 99-year-old Dorrit Hollfiet, one of the pioneer women in Astronomy; and you helped ensure the future by organizing last summer’s Yale course in astrometry, a great success.

Of you one colleague said: “When tragedy strikes, some step forward and some step back—Bill is someone who steps forward.” For all that you have done, your Yale colleagues now wish to step forward and honor you, Bill Van Altena, and wish you a fruitful retirement.

Tribute Editor: Penelope Laurans