Awards & Winners

Joel Stebbins

Date of Birth 30-June-1878
Place of Birth Omaha
(Douglas County, Nebraska, United States of America, Area codes 402 and 531, Area code 402, Area code 531)
Nationality United States of America
Profession Astronomer
Joel Stebbins was an American astronomer who pioneered photoelectric photometry in astronomy. He was director of the University of Illinois Observatory from 1903 to 1922 where he performed innovative work with the selenium cell. In 1922 he became director of the Washburn Observatory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he remained until 1948. After 1948, Stebbins continued his research at Lick Observatory until his final retirement in 1958. Stebbins brought photoelectric photometry from its infancy in the early 1900s to a mature technique by the 1950s, when it succeeded photography as the primary method of photometry. He used the new technique to investigate eclipsing binaries, the reddening of starlight by interstellar dust, colors of galaxies, and variable stars.

Awards by Joel Stebbins

Check all the awards nominated and won by Joel Stebbins.

1915


Henry Draper Medal
(In recognition of his work on application of the selenium cell to stellar photometry.)

1913


Rumford Prize
(For his development of the selenium photometer and its application to astronomical problems.)