Catherine Anderson Pilachowski (born 1949) is an American

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

, professor and Kirkwood Chair in

astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

Indiana University Bloomington Indiana University Bloomington (IU Bloomington, Indiana University, IU, IUB, or Indiana) is a public university, public research university in Bloomington, Indiana, United States. It is the flagship university, flagship campus of Indiana Univer ...

. She is a fellow at the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

and former president of the

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

Early life and education

Pilachowski was born and raised in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. She has stated that growing up during the

Space Race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...

between the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

led to her interest in becoming an astronomer. She received her B.S. in Physics in 1971 from

Harvey Mudd College Harvey Mudd College (HMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California, focused on science and engineering. It is part of the Claremont Colleges, which share adjoining campus grounds and resources. The college enrolled 902 undergra ...

in California and an

M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in 1975 from the

University of Hawaii A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

Career

Pilachowski is a fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Astronomical Society. She was president of the American Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004. For over twenty years, she was a staff astronomer at the

National Optical Astronomy Observatory The National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) was the United States national observatory for ground-based nighttime ultraviolet-optical-infrared (OUVIR) astronomy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) funded NOAO to provide forefront astronom ...

Kitt Peak Observatory The Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak of the Quinlan Mountains in the Arizona-Sonoran Desert on the Tohono Oʼodham Nation, west-southwest of Tucson, Arizona. With more than ...

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, where she served as project scientist for the design and construction of the

WIYN Telescope The WIYN Observatory is owned and operated by the WIYN Consortium. Its 3.5-meter telescope is the second largest optical telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. Most of the capital costs for the observatory were provided by the U ...

. Pilachowski became a professor of astronomy at Indiana University and in 2001 was named the Daniel Kirkwood Chair in the Department of Astronomy. Pilachowski specializes in understanding the spectra of

starlight Starlight is the light emitted by stars. It typically refers to visible electromagnetic radiation from stars other than the Sun, observable from Earth at night, although a component of starlight is observable from Earth during daytime. Sunlig ...

. Her work has included searching for the molecular species

hydrogen fluoride Hydrogen fluoride (fluorane) is an Inorganic chemistry, inorganic compound with chemical formula . It is a very poisonous, colorless gas or liquid that dissolves in water to yield hydrofluoric acid. It is the principal industrial source of fluori ...

Publications

* Chemical abundances of open clusters from high-resolution infrared spectra - II. NGC 752 Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, et al. 2020, MNRAS, 491, 544 *Carbon and Oxygen Isotopic Ratios. II. Semiregular Variable M Giants Lebzelter, T.; Hinkle, K. H.; Straniero, O.; Lambert, D. L.; Pilachowski, C. A.; Nault, Kr. A. 2019, AJ, 886, 117L * Phosphorus Abundances in the Hyades and Galactic Disk Maas, Z. G.; Cescutti, G.;Pilachowski, C. A. 2019, AJ, 158, 219 * Chemical Abundances of Open Clusters From High-Resolution Infrared Spectra. II. NGC 752 Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, C. A. et al. 2020, MNRAS, * Chemical abundances of open clusters from high-resolution infrared spectra - I. NGC 6940 Bocek Topcu, G.; Afsar, M.; Sneden, C.; Pilachowski, C. A. et al. 2019, MNRAS, 485, 4625 * Carbon Isotope Ratios in M10 Giants Maas, Z. G.; Gerber, J. M.; Deibel, Alex; Pilachowski, C. A. 2019, ApJ, 878, 43 * Chlorine Isotope Ratios in M Giants Maas, Z. G., Pilachowski, C. A. 2018, AJ, 156, 2 * Is the Young Star RZ Piscium Consuming Its Own (Planetary) Offspring? Punzi, K. M., Kastner, J. H. et al. 2018, AJ, 155, 33. * Photometric Detection of Multiple Populations in Globular Clusters Using Integrated Light Bowman, W. P., Pilachowski, C. A., van Zee, L., Winans, A., Ciardullo, R., Gronwall, C. 2017, AJ, 154, 131. * Photometric and radial-velocity time series of RR Lyrae stars in M3: analysis of single-mode variables Jurcsik, J., Smitola, P. et al. 2017, MNRAS, 468, 1317. * Phosphorus Abundances in FGK Stars Maas, Z. G., Pilachowski, C. A., Cescutti, G. 2017, ApJ, 841, 108. * Differences in the rotational properties of multiple stellar populations in M13: a faster rotation for the `extreme' chemical subpopulation Cordero, M. J., Henault-Brunet, V., Pilachowski, C. A., Balbinot, E., Johnson, C. I., Varri, A. L. 2017, MNRAS, 465, 3515 * An Archive of Spectra from the Mayall Fourier Transform Spectrometer at Kitt Peak Pilachowski, C. A., Hinkle, K. H., Young, M. D., Dennis, H. B., Gopu, A., Henschel, R., Hayashi, S. 2017, PASP, 129, 024006. * The M Dwarf Eclipsing Binary CU Cancri Wilson, R. E., Pilachowski, C. A., Terrell, D. 2017, ApJ, 835, 251. * The Abundance of Lithium in an ABG Star in the Globular Cluster M3 (NGC 5272) Givens, R. A., Pilachowski, C. A. 2016, PASP, 128, 124203.

References

External links

Additional publications

Interviews, Dr. Catherine 'Caty' Pilachowski
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilachowski, Catherine Indiana University Bloomington faculty American women astronomers Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Harvey Mudd College alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni Living people 1949 births