The Bruce Medalists: Sidney van den Bergh
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<td width="33%" valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo ca. 1980, courtesy Dr. Van den Bergh</font></td>
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<tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Sidney van den Bergh</font></b></font></td>
<tr><td width="33%"><b>20 May 1929</b></td> <td align="center" width="34%"><b>2008 Bruce Medalist</b></td>
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<p>Sidney van den Bergh was born in the Netherlands and studied one year at <a href="http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/outreach/history.php?node=76">Leiden University</a>, after which he transferred to <a href="http://etcweb.princeton.edu/CampusWWW/Companion/astrophysical_sciences_department.html">Princeton University</a>, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. After receiving a master’s degree at <a href="http://www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/About/1stcentury.html">The Ohio State University</a> he earned his doctorate at <a href="http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/sh/1379.html">Göttingen</a> in 1956. After two years back at Ohio State, he was a professor at the <a href="http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/history.html">University of Toronto</a> for nineteen years. Since 1978 he has been at the <a href="http://hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/dao/history_e.html">Dominion Astrophysical Observatory</a> in Victoria, as director until 1986, and as a researcher since then (formally retired since 1998). He is an observer who has worked on everything from meteors, comets, stars, and star clusters to cosmology, but the research for which he is best known is in the classification of galaxies, the study of supernovae, and the extragalactic distance scale. He discovered the dwarf spheroidal galaxies orbiting the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the jet in the Crab Nebula, X-ray emission from X Persei, a comet, and the first Cepheid variable stars in open clusters. His DDO Galaxy Catalog, compiled while he was at the <a href="http://www.astro.utoronto.ca/DDO/">David Dunlap Observatory</a> of the University of Toronto, was a valuable tool for the study of galaxies, especially dwarf galaxies. The DDO photometric system, which he devised with Robert D. McClure, was a valuable supplement to the UBV system, allowing the determination of both spectral types and luminosities of reddened stars. Van den Bergh also developed new classification systems for supernova remnants and for galaxies. In 1996 he participated in a debate on <a href="http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/debate_1996.html">The Scale of the Universe 1996: The Value of Hubble’s Constant</a>, serving as spokesman for those who believed that the value of the constant was relatively large. He was a leader in the building of the <a href="http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/">Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope</a>, serving as president and chairman of the board of the CFHT Corporation.
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<b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></fONT></b><br>
See the <a href="http://www.astrosociety.org/membership/awards/08winners.html">ASP website.</a></p>
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<b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Other awards</font></fONT></b><br>
American Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.aas.org/grants/awards.php#russell">Henry Norris Russell Lectureship</a>, 1990.<br>
Canadian Astronomical Society, <a href="http://www.cascaeducation.ca/files/cdn_astronomerbeals.html">Carlyle S. Beals Award</a>, 1998.<br>
Canada Council for the Arts, <a href="http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/killam">Killam Prize</a>, 1990.<br>
Government of Canada, <a href="http://www.gg.ca/honours/search-recherche/honours-desc.asp?lang=e&TypeID=orc&id=3319">Order of Canada</a>, 1994.
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<p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></fONT></b><br>
<a href="http://www.casca.ca/indexeng.html">Canadian Astronomical Society</a>, President, 1990-92.<br>
<a href="http://iau.org/">International Astronomical Union</a>, Vice President, 1976-82.
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<b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></fONT></b><br>
McNicholl, Martin K. <a href="http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0008298">The Canadian Encyclopedia </a><br>
<a href="http://www.science.ca/scientists/scientistprofile.php?pID=414">science.ca</a><br>
Van den Bergh, Sidney, “An Astronomical Life,” <a href="http://www.hia-iha.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/staff/vdB/astrolife_e.html"><i>Comments on Astrophysics</i> <b>18</b>, 181-90 (1995)</a>.
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<p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Portraits</font></fONT></b><br>
<a href="VandenBerghRecent.jpg">A recent photo</a>, <i>ca.</i> 2005, courtesy of Dr. Van den Bergh and Gibson’s Photography, Victoria, BC, Canada.<br>
Presidential portrait, <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1991JRASC..85..177."><i>Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada</i> <b>85</b>, 177 (1991)</a>.
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<p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></fONT></b><br>
<a href="http://www.rasc.ca/education/asteroids.shtml">Minor Planet #4230 van den Bergh</a><br>
<a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/02700/02719.html">Comet van den Bergh, 1974g</a><br>
[Lunar crater van den Bergh is named for Sidney’s uncle <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_van_den_Bergh">George</a>]
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<p><b><font size="+1"><a href="vandenBerghRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p>
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<center><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></center>
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<td valign=TOP><font size="-1">Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br>
<a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a><br></font></td>
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<a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a>
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<a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">2008-05-05</a></font></td>
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