Gladys Elena Vergara Gavagnin (1928 – 5 July 2016) was a

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an astronomer and professor, known for her calculations on eclipses, made during a time when computers were not capable of them. The asteroid 5659 Vergara is named in her honor.

Career

Vergara studied physical sciences and astronomy, at a time when both fields were inaccessible for women. She was part of the first generation of students of the Astronomy Department founded by Dr. Cernuschi in the

University of the Republic The University of the Republic (, sometimes ''UdelaR'') is a public research university in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is the country's oldest and largest university, as well as one of the largest public universities in South America in terms of en ...

's . In 1952, she was one of the founders of the Association of Astronomy Aficionados. She was secretary of the

Uruguayan Antarctic Institute The Uruguayan Antarctic Institute () is Uruguay's governmental agency to fund, organize, control and promote research on Antarctica according with the Antarctic Treaty System. It was founded by scientists, and is now managed by Uruguay's Ministri ...

. On 18 July 1968, Chilean astronomers Carlos Torres and S. Cofré discovered, at the

Cerro El Roble Astronomical Station The National Astronomical Observatory of Chile (Spanish: ''Observatorio Astronómico Nacional de Chile'' - OAN) is an astronomy, astronomical observatory owned and operated by the Department of Astronomy of the University of Chile (UCh). It is lo ...

in Chile, a new

main belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

asteroid that was provisionally designated 1968 OA1. After Vergara's death, the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) named the asteroid 5659 Vergara. Gladys Vergara was secretary of the directing council of the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute, according to the resolution approved by the First National Antarctic Convention, held in Montevideo from 24 to 27 April 1970. The dictatorship of 1973 dismissed her and she was unemployed until the return of democracy in 1985. Vergara was a professor of Astronomy of the . Vergara was the Director of the Observatory of Montevideo, a professor at the Surveying Institute of the , and a professor at the Batlle y Ordóñez Institute when it was the Women's Institute. Vergara encouraged her students to buy a 10 cm Unitron

refracting telescope A refracting telescope (also called a refractor) is a type of optical telescope that uses a lens (optics), lens as its objective (optics), objective to form an image (also referred to a dioptrics, dioptric telescope). The refracting telescope d ...

that was used to inaugurate the Observatory of the Women's Institute of Secondary Education, Batlle y Ordóñez Institute (IBO), of which she was one of the founders in January 1976. She was one of the founders of the National Committee of Astronomy of Uruguay. At the Faculty of Engineering she was a classmate of Lic. Professor Esmeralda Mallada, in whose honor the asteroid 16277 Mallada was named. Gladys Vergara died in Montevideo on 5 July 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vergara, Gladys 1928 births 2016 deaths 20th-century astronomers 21st-century astronomers Place of birth missing University of the Republic (Uruguay) alumni Academic staff of the University of the Republic (Uruguay) Uruguayan astronomers Women astronomers