比阿汀斯·莫瑞尔·廷斯利1941—1981

生平

1974年，她获得了美国天文学会的安妮·坎农天文学奖，该奖项旨在表彰她“作为博士后女研究员的杰出研究和未来研究的前景”，以表彰她在星系演化方面的工作。

1977年，比阿汀斯·廷斯利与耶鲁大学的理查德·拉尔森组织了一场关于“星系和恒星群的演化”的会议。

1978年，比阿汀斯·廷斯利成为耶鲁大学第一位女性天文学教授。她去世前十天提交给《天文物理学杂志》的最后一篇科学论文于同年11月未经修改地发表。

1981年3月23日，比阿汀斯·廷斯利因黑色素瘤去世。她的骨灰被安葬在康涅狄格州纽黑文的格罗夫街公墓，该公墓被耶鲁大学校园环绕。

荣誉

1986年，美国天文学会设立了比阿汀斯·廷斯利奖，旨在表彰“对天文学或天体物理学做出的杰出研究贡献，以及具有非凡的创造性或创新性的研究”。 这是美国科学学会设立的唯一专门表扬女性科学家的重大奖项，该奖项不限制候选人的国籍或居住国。

1981年，特卡波附近的约翰山坎特伯雷大学天文台发现的主带小行星3087以比阿汀斯·廷斯利的名字命名。

2010年12月，新西兰地理委员会将峡湾地区开普勒山脉（以天文学家约翰尼斯·开普勒命名）中的一座山峰命名为廷斯利山。

Beatrice Muriel Hill Tinsley (27 January 1941 – 23 March 1981) was a British-born New Zealand astronomer and cosmologist, and the first female professor of astronomy at Yale University, whose research made fundamental contributions to the astronomical understanding of how galaxies evolve, grow and die.

Life

Beatrice Hill was born 1941 in Chester, England, as the middle of three daughters of Jean and Edward Hill. The family emigrated to New Zealand following World War II, first living in Christchurch, and then for a longer time in New Plymouth, where her father was a clergyman, Moral Re-Armer, and later became the mayor (1953–56).

While studying in Christchurch, she married physicist and university classmate Brian Tinsley, not knowing that this would prevent her from working at the university while he was employed there. Tinsley completed her master's thesis in 1962. They moved in 1963 to the United States, to Dallas, Texas, where Brian was hired by the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies (now the University of Texas at Dallas). However, she was said to have found the situation "stultifying", and had once caused a controversy by refusing to follow the custom of hosting a faculty tea. In 1964, she enrolled at UT-Austin, where she was the only woman in the astronomy programme and where she would later publish her groundbreaking research.

Despite receiving recognition for her work, Tinsley was unable to find a permanent academic position. In 1974, after years of attempting to balance home, family and two commuting careers, she left her husband and two adopted children to take a position as assistant professor at Yale. On 1 July 1978 she was appointed a professor of astronomy at Yale, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She worked at Yale until her death from melanoma in the Yale Infirmary in 1981.

Professional activity

Tinsley completed pioneering theoretical studies of how populations of stars age and affect the observable qualities of galaxies. She also collaborated on basic research into models investigating whether the universe is closed or open. Her galaxy models led to the first approximation of what protogalaxies should look like.

In 1974 she received the American Astronomical Society's Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy, awarded for "outstanding research and promise for future research by a postdoctoral woman researcher", in recognition of her work on galaxy evolution.

In 1977, Tinsley, with Richard Larson of Yale, organised a conference on 'The Evolution of Galaxies and Stellar Populations'.

Shortly after, in 1978, she became the first female professor of astronomy at Yale University. Her last scientific paper, submitted to The Astrophysical Journal ten days before her death, was published posthumously that November, without revision.

Death

Tinsley died of melanoma on 23 March 1981, at the age of 40. Her ashes are buried at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut, which is surrounded by the Yale University campus.

Tributes

In 1986 the American Astronomical Society established the Beatrice M. Tinsley Prize, which recognises "an outstanding research contribution to astronomy or astrophysics, of an exceptionally creative or innovative character." It is the only major award created by an American scientific society which honours a woman scientist. The award is not made with restriction on a candidate's citizenship or country of residence.

The main-belt asteroid 3087 Beatrice Tinsley, discovered in 1981 at Mt John University Observatory near Tekapo, is also named after her.

The University of Texas at Austin established from endowment in 1989 the Beatrice M. Tinsley Centennial Visiting Professorship, where a distinguished mid-career or senior professor is invited to visit for up to a semester. In 2007 they added the Tinsley Scholars, awards for younger researchers to briefly visit Austin.

In 2005, the Circa Theatre in Wellington produced a play called Bright Star, about the life of Beatrice Tinsley. The Wellington Astronomical Society held telescope viewing sessions outside the theatre, on the wharf next to the Te Papa Museum.

In December 2010 the New Zealand Geographic Board officially named a mountain in Fiordland's Kepler Mountains (which are named for astronomer Johannes Kepler) as Mt Tinsley.

The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand established the Beatrice Hill Tinsley Lectures in 2012.

Beatrice Tinsley Crescent in Rosedale, on Auckland's North Shore, is named for her.