Blaauw lecture

Each year the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute organizes the Blaauw lecture. This is a lecture by an internationally renowned astronomer which everyone, including the general public, can attend. The level of the lecture is such that everyone should be able to understand it. In 2011 the lecture will be given by Prof. Francoise Combes (Paris) on Tuesday October 25 at 20:00 in the Aula of the Academy building. Prof. Francoise Combes is a Member of the French Academy of Sciences and an acknowledged expert in the field of structure, dynamics, and evolution of galaxies.

Prof. Françoise Combes Paris Observatory (LERMA)

Prof. Francoise Combes (Paris) accepted the 2011 Blaauw Chair. She is a Member of the French Academy of Sciences and was proposed as 2011 Blaauw professor by the majority of the Kapteyn Institute staff. She is an acknowledged expert in the field of structure, dynamics, and evolution of galaxies. She has more than 600 publications, on many aspects of this field, such as interstellar matter at low and high redshift, spiral structure, bars, and black holes in galaxies, and interaction and cosmic evolution of galaxies. As such her expertise fits nicely within the main research theme Structure and Evolution of Galaxies at the Kapteyn Institute.

In addition, prof. Combes is a well-known educator/communicator: she wrote several monographs, course books, and chapters for encyclopedia, and speaks often at both specialists' and general conferences. She has great talent for organisation, being involved in the planning and exploitation of major instruments and telescopes and playing an important role in astronomical committees and scientific organisations, nationally and internationally. She was Scientific Editor of the European Journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, for eight years.

During her stay in Groningen, prof. Combes will present seminars for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, besides a general colloquium. She will interact with the Kapteyn Institute scientific population, and present colloquia at other Dutch Institutes.

On October 25, she will deliver the Blaauw Lecture, a semi-popular lecture for a broad audience, in the Academy Building of Groningen University, on the topic of Black Holes in Galaxies.

The Blaauw chair and the Blaauw lecture

The Blaauw chair and Blaauw lecture were initiated in 1997 as one of six visiting professorships in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. This was an idea of Prof. Dr. P.C. van der Kruit, the dean of the faculty at that time. The Blaauw professor is selected by the scientific staff of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute through advice to the board of the Faculty which then makes the actual appointment. The Blaauw professor will be at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute for approximately two months and will have as much contact as possible with students, graduate students and postdocs. The criteria for the selection are excellence in research, broad knowledge of astronomy and an outstanding international status in astronomy.

The chair is named after Prof. A. Blaauw in honor of his outstanding scientific and organisational achievements and his extremely important impact on astronomy in Groningen, The Netherlands and the world.

The Blaauw professors

Michael Feast (South-African Astronomical Observatory and University of Cape Town, South-Africa, 1999)

Rob Kennicutt (Steward Observatory and University of Arizona, U.S.A., 2001)

Martin Harwitt (Cornell University, U.S.A., 2002)

Ken Freeman (Mount Stromlo Observatory and Australian National University, Australia, 2003)

Joe Silk (Oxford University, U.K., 2004)

Simon  White (Max-Plack-Institut fur Astrophysic, Germany, 2005)

Colin Norman (Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A., 2006)

Donald Lynden-Bell (Cambridge University, U.K., 2007)

Andrea Ferrara (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, 2008)

Scott Tremaine (Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, USA, 2009)

Ron Ekers (Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia, 2010)

Françoise Combes (Paris Observatory, LERMA, France, 2011)

Professor Adriaan Blaauw

Professor Blaauw was born in Amsterdam in 1914. He studied at Leiden University and worked from 1938 in Groningen with Professor P.J. van Rhijn. In 1945 he went back to Leiden but shortly after he finished his thesis which resulted in his promotion with Professor Van Rhijn at the RuG in 1946. His thesis was titled: "A study of the Scorpio-Centaurus cluster". In the following years he worked twice during a longer period at the Yerkes observatory in Chicago and took part in astrometry expeditions to Kenya organised by Leiden University in which precise positions of stars were measured. In 1953 he left for an appointment as associate professor at the Yerkes Observatory and the University of Chicago. In 1957 he returned to Groningen to become director of the "Sterrenkundig Laboratorium Kapteyn". He was very succesful as director and managed to revive astronomy in Groningen after a bad period, and bring it back to the prominent position it had at the time of Kapteyn.

Professor Blaauw was closely involved in the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) which now is a leader in astronomy world wide with the largest optical telescope in the world at Paranal, Chile. From 1970 until 1975 he was General Director. At the end of his term he decided to go to Leiden where he stayed until his pension in 1981. During that time he was President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU). He also led the process of defining the scientific programme for the very succesful astrometric satellite Hipparcos. After his pension Professor Blaauw returned to Groningen where he was connected to the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute as emeritus professor.

Besides his prestigious international positions he has continued doing research throughout his career. His area of research is the structure of our Galaxy and the formation of stars. His main contributions are the explanation of the origin of stars that move with high velocity in our galaxy and the description of star formation in associations.

After his retirement in 1981, Professor Blaauw returned to the Kapteyn Institute in Groningen. In his later years he wrote books on the history of the IAU and of ESO, as well as historical studies of the characteristic farms in the province of Drenthe. He remained active in research on young stellar groups, on "runaways" and their relationship with pulsars and supernovae, and he played an active role in scientific discussions at the Kapteyn Institute. Up to his final months he gave numerous interviews and presentations on the history of Dutch and worldwide astronomy. He passed away on December 1st, 2010.

Obituary