Science & invention
Armin Otto Leuschner
1868–1953 · astronomer, educator
Founder of astronomy teaching and research at the University of California, Berkeley, born in Detroit and educated at the University of Michigan.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Berkeley, California
aged 85- Also known as
- Armin Leuschner
- Field
- Science & invention
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Leuschner was born in Detroit in 1868 but was taken to Germany as a child and grew up there. He returned to the United States for university and graduated from the University of Michigan in mathematics in 1888. He then went to California, where he worked at Lick Observatory and joined the University of California, building up its astronomy department and the Students' Observatory on the Berkeley campus, which now carries his name as the Leuschner Observatory. He was best known for methods of calculating the orbits of comets and asteroids from a few observations, and he trained a generation of American astronomers. He received the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1936 and died in Berkeley in 1953.
Highlights
- Founded Berkeley's astronomy department and its Students' Observatory
- Developed widely used methods for computing orbits of comets and asteroids
- Bruce Medal, 1936
- University of Michigan graduate, 1888; born in Detroit, 1868