Charlene Heisler (1 December 1961 – 28 October 1999) was a Canadian astronomer. She is best known for her work on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). The

Astronomical Society of Australia The Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) is the professional body representing astronomers in Australia. Established in 1966, it is incorporated in the Australian Capital Territory. Membership of the ASA is open to people "capable of contribut ...

created the Charlene Heisler Prize in her honour.

Early life and education

Charlene Heisler was born in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. Heisler graduated from the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

with a BSc in applied maths and physics in 1985. During her time at Calgary, she worked as a summer research assistant for Sun Kwok and Gene (Eugene) Couch as well as working at the Calgary Centennial Planetarium. Before starting her PhD, Heisler was diagnosed with

cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...

and was informed by her doctor she would not live more than two years and that she should abandon her PhD studies. However, she went on to live 8 more years and she completed her PhD at

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

under the supervision of Jeanette Patricia Vader in 1991. The focus of her thesis was on the properties of galaxies with spectral energy distributions that peaked at sixty microns, referred to as "Sixty Micron Peakers".

Research and career

Heisler spent two years as a post doctoral researcher at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

with Mike De Robertis, where she also began her work in science education. She extended her research of "Peakers" to infrared wavelengths, making use of the

Mauna Kea Mauna Kea (, ; abbreviation for ''Mauna a Wākea''); is a dormant Shield volcano, shield volcano on the Hawaii (island), island of Hawaii. Its peak is above sea level, making it the List of U.S. states by elevation, highest point in Hawaii a ...

telescopes, with the belief that "Peakers" contained key information about the early stages of AGN. Using a combination of infrared imaging and spectroscopic data from observations she made at

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 ...

and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO), this belief proved true. Heisler also taught two undergraduate classes at York, gave public talks and inspired young women in science. In 1993, she moved to

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, becoming a postdoctoral research fellow at the Anglo Australian Observatory. She also started work as a support astronomer for IRIS and became a liaison officer with AAO on the MPI 3D project. In 1996, she moved to

Mount Stromlo Observatory Mount Stromlo Observatory located in the west of Canberra, Australia, is part of the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU). Australia's oldest telescope and several others at the observatory we ...

in Canberra, Australia and was awarded a senior fellowship there in 1998. In 1997, whilst working with Stuart Lumsden and Jeremy Bailey, she published her most notable paper on why only some Seyfert II galaxies have hidden broad line regions that are only visible in polarised light. Heisler and her team thought this was due to a link between the infrared colour of the galaxy and the broad line region existing. This led to a model where Seyfert II galaxies which were known to have hidden broad line regions galaxies being modelled as normal Seyfert galaxies with symmetry axes along the line-of-sight. Her last major project was COLA (COmpact Low-power AGN) with Phil Appleton and Ray Norris which aimed to establish if there was evidence that AGN activity was associated with

starburst MicroPro International Corporation was an American software company founded in 1978 in San Rafael, California. They are best known as the publisher of WordStar, a popular early word processor for personal computers. History Founding and early su ...

activity. After her death, the Astronomical Society of Australia created the Charlene Heisler Prize which is awarded annually to the most outstanding PhD thesis in the field of astronomy at an Australian university.

Notable publications

* Charlene A Heisler; Stuart L Lumsden; Jeremy A Bailey. (February 1997). "Visibility of scattered broad-line emission in Seyfert 2 galaxies".

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

. 385(6618): 700–702. doi
10.1038/385700a0
* Charlene A Heisler, Patricia J Vader. (January 1994). "Galaxies with Spectral Energy Distributions Peaking Near 60microns II. Optical Broadband Properties".

Astronomical Journal ''The Astronomical Journal'' (often abbreviated ''AJ'' in scientific papers and references) is a peer-reviewed monthly scientific journal owned by the American Astronomical Society (AAS) and currently published by IOP Publishing. It is one of the ...

. 107: 35. doi: 10.1086/116834 * Charlene A Heisler, Patricia J Vader. (July 1995). "Galaxies with Spectral Energy Distributions Peaking Near 60 micron.III. H(alpha) Imaging". Astronomical Journal. 110: 87. doi: 10.1086/117499 * Charlene A Heisler, Michael M De Robertis. (November 1999). "A Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Study of 60 Micron Peakers". Astronomical Journal. 118(5): 2038–2054. doi: 10.1086/301073 * Charlene A Heisler, Michael M De Robertis, D Nadeau. (May 1996). "Near-infrared surface photometry of `Sixty Micron Peaker' galaxies".

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ''Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society'' (MNRAS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in astronomy, astrophysics and related fields. It publishes original research in two formats: papers (of any length) and letters (limited to ...

. 280(2): 579–615. doi: 10.1093/mnras/280.2.579

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heisler, Charlene 1961 births 1999 deaths Scientists from Calgary University of Calgary alumni Canadian women astronomers Yale University alumni 20th-century Canadian astronomers