Paul Willard Merrill

1946 Bruce Medalist

Date of Birth: August 15, 1887
Date of Death: April 19, 1961

Paul Merrill was born in Minneapolis but moved to California before high school. He earned his A.B. in 1908 at Stanford University and his Ph.D. in 1913 at the University of California, spending equal amounts of time at Berkeley and the Lick Observatory. After three years at the University of Michigan, he joined the National Bureau of Standards, where he worked on aerial photography in the visible and infrared during World War I. He later proposed doing infrared astronomy from airplanes. In 1919 he joined the staff of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, where he continued his research until well after his 1952 retirement. He was a spectroscopist who studied peculiar stars, especially long-period variables. He also investigated the interstellar medium and performed pioneer spectral research in the infrared. His greatest discovery came shortly before retirement, when he identified lines of technetium in R Andromedae and other S-type stars. Since this element has no stable isotopes, Merrill’s discovery is taken as evidence for its recent production in the stars, and thus for the existence of the s-process of nucleosynthesis.

Presentation of Bruce medal

Neubauer, F.J., PASP 58, 81-85 (1946).

Other awards

American Astronomical Society, Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, 1955.
National Academy of Sciences, Henry Draper Medal, 1945.

Some offices held

American Astronomical Society, President, 1956-58.
Astronomical Society of the Pacific, President, 1927.

Biographical materials

Wilson, O.C., Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Science 37, 237-66 (1964) (pdf).

Bibliography

Papers, etc.

Merrill’s papers are at the Huntington Library.

Other References: Historical

Burbidge, E. Margaret, “Synthesis of the Elements in Stars: B²FH and Beyond,” in Origin and Evolution of the Elements: Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Symposium, vol. 4, Andrew McWilliam & Michael Rauch, eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004), pp. 8-11.

Hearnshaw, J. B., The Analysis of Starlight (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986).

Osterbrock, Donald E., “An Infrared Astronomer’s Early Vision of Airborne Astronomy: Paul Merrill 1920,” in Airborne Astronomy Symposium on the Galactic Ecosystem: From Gas to Stars to Dust (ASP Conference Series, v. 73, 1995), pp. 619-622.

Preston, George W., “Mount Wilson Observatory: Contributions to the Study of Cosmic Abundances of the Chemical Elements,” in Origin and Evolution of the Elements: Carnegie Observatories Astrophysics Symposium, vol. 4, Andrew McWilliam & Michael Rauch, eds. (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004), pp. 1-7.

Sandage, Allan, The Mount Wilson Observatory. Centennial History of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, vol. 1 (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 2004).

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Other References: Scientific

Merrill, Paul W. & C.P. Oliver, “Photographs of Comet a 1910, Obtained with the Crocker Telescope,” Lick Obs. Bull. 5, 182 (1910).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Note on the Spectrum of P Cygni,” PASP 23, 236-37 (1911).

Merrill, Paul, W., “The Emissivity of Stars at Different Temperatures,” PASP 27, 120-22 (1915).

Merrill, Paul W., “Interferometer Observations of Double Stars,” Ap.J. 56, 40-52 (1922).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Zirconium Bands in Stellar Spectra of Class S,” PASP 35, 217 (1923).

Merrill, Paul W., Milton L. Humason, & Cora G. Burwell, “Discovery and Observations of Stars of Class Be,” Ap.J. 61, 389-417 (1925) and Ap.J. 76, 156-83 (1932).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Stars Whose Spectra Have Bright Iron Lines,” Ap.J. 65, 286-94 (1927).

Merrill, Paul W., Milton L. Humason, & Cora G. Burwell, “Discovery and Observations of Stars of Class Be: Second Paper,” Ap.J. 76, 156-83 (1933).

Merrill, Paul W. & Cora G. Burwell, “Catalogue and Bibliography of Stars of Classes B and A whose Spectra have Bright Hydrogen Lines,” Ap.J. 78, 87-140 (1933).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Photography of the Near Infra-Red Region of Stellar Spectra,” Ap.J. 79, 183 (1934).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Unidentified Interstellar Lines,” PASP 46, 206-07 (1934).

Merrill, Paul W., “Stationary Lines in the Spectrum of the Binary Star Boss 6142,” Ap.J. 83, 126-28 (1936).

Merrill, Paul W., Rocoe F. Sanford, O.C. Wilson, & Cora G. Burwell, “Intensities and Displacements of Interstellar Lines,” Ap.J. 86, 274-310 (1937).

Merrill, Paul W., The Nature of Variable Stars (Macmillan, NY, 1938) [review].

Merrill, Paul W., Spectra of Long-Period Variable Stars (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1940) [review].

Merrill, Paul W. & Cora G. Burwell, “Supplement to the Mount Wilson Catalogue and Bibliography of Stars of Classes B and A whose Spectra have Bright Hydrogen Lines,” Ap.J. 98, 153-84 (1943).

Merrill, Paul W., “Atomic Lines in the Spectrum of R Andromedae,”Ap.J. 105, 360-75 (1947).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Stars Having Shell Spectra,” PASP 61, 38(1949). [Reprinted in PASP 100, 767 (1988) with commentary by Arne Slettebak].

Merrill, Paul W. & Cora G. Burwell, “Second Supplement to the Mount Wilson Catalogue and Bibliography of Stars of Classes B and a whose Spectra have Bright Hydrogen Lines,” Ap.J. 110, 387-419 (1949).

Merrill, Paul W. & Cora G. Burwell, “Additional Stars whose Spectra have a Bright H α Line,” Ap.J. 112, 72-89 (1950).

Merrill, Paul W., “The Spectrum of R Aquarii, 1936-1949,” Ap.J. 112, 514-19 (1950).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Spectroscopic Observations of Stars of Class S,” Ap.J. 116, 21 (1952).

Buscombe, William & Paul W. Merrill, “Intensities of Atomic Absorption Lines in the Spectra of Long-Period Variable Stars,” Ap.J. 116, 525-35 (1952).

Merrill, Paul W., Lines of the Chemical Elements in Astronomical Spectra (Carnegie Inst. of Washington, 1956).

Merrill, Paul, W. & Jesse L. Greenstein, “Revised List of Absorption Lines in the Spectrum of R Andromedae,” Ap.J. Supp. 2, 225-40 (1956).

Adams, Walter S. & Paul W. Merrill, “Mount Wilson Spectrograms of P Cygni,” Ap.J. 125, 102-06 (1957).

Merrill, Paul W., “Spectra of Long-Period Variables,” in J.L. Greenstein, ed., Stellar Atmospheres (Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1960), pp. 509-29.

Merrill, Paul W., “Unidentified Lines in Spectra of Sun and Stars,” Ap.J. 134, 556-61 (1961).

Merrill, Paul W., Armin J. Deutsch, & Philip C. Keenan, “Absorption Spectra of M-Type Mira Variables,” Ap.J. 136, 21-34 (1962).

Merrill, Paul W., Space Chemistry (Univ. of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1963).

Slettebak, Arne, ed., Be and Shell Stars : IAU Symposium no. 70 (Merrill-McLaughlin memorial symposium) held at Bass River, Massachusetts, U.S.A., 15-18 September 1975 (D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1976).

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Other Works: Popularizations, History, etc.

Merrill, Paul, W., “Progress in Photography Resulting from the War,” PASP 32, 16-26 (1920).

Merrill, Paul, W., “Stars As They Look and As They Are,” PASP 38, 14-20 (1926).

Merrill, Paul W., “Iron in the Stars,” Scientia (Jan/Feb 1946) and Leaflets of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 5, 273-80 (1948) [Leaflet #233].

Merrill, Paul W., “From Atoms to Galaxies,” Leaflets of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 7, 393-400 (1958) [Leaflet #349].

Merrill, Paul W., “The Story of AG Pegasi,” Sky & Telescope 18, 490 (1959).