Judith Sharn Young (; September 15, 1952 – May 23, 2014) was an American

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

, astronomer, and educator. The

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of ...

honored Young with the first

Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award The Maria Goeppert-Mayer Award is an annual prize presented by the American Physical Society in recognition of an outstanding contribution to physics research by a woman. It recognizes and enhances outstanding achievements by women physicists in th ...

for being the best young physicist in the world in 1986. Astronomer Nick Scoville of

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...

writes of her research: "Her pioneering galactic structure research included some of the earliest mapping of CO emission in galaxies followed by the most extensive surveys molecular gas and star formation in nearby galaxies."

Career

Young received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Astronomy from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and graduated with Honors. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in physics from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. Young began a postdoctoral fellowship at

UMass The University of Massachusetts is the public university system of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, a medical school in Worcester and a law school in Dartmouth ...

in 1979, collaborating with Nick Z. Scoville in a study which measured the cold gas and

carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...

content of

galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar Sys ...

. The pair made the discovery that the distribution of light and gas is proportional in galaxies. 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 ...

awarded her the Annie J. Cannon Prize for this work in 1982. Young became an assistant professor at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

in 1985. In 1989, Young was promoted to associate professor with tenure, and became a Full Professor in 1993. She published more than 130 papers, mentored 5 Ph.D. candidates, and supervised 15 undergraduate research projects. Young is perhaps best known for her Sunwheel project. Young's goal for this project was to bring astronomy down to earth and to an empty lot behind the football stadium at the UMass- Amherst campus. In addition to her academic work, Young volunteered on the UMass campus and in her local community.

Personal life

Young was born in Washington, D.C., the daughter of astronomer

Vera Rubin Vera Florence Cooper Rubin (; July 23, 1928 – December 25, 2016) was an American astronomer who pioneered work on galaxy rotation rates. She uncovered the discrepancy between the predicted and observed angular motion of galaxies by studyi ...

and mathematical biophysicist

Robert Joshua Rubin Robert Joshua Rubin (; August 17, 1926 – January 18, 2008) was an American mathematician whose work involved modelling complex physical systems. He is best known as the husband of astronomer Vera Rubin. Early life and education Robert Josh ...

, and sister to mathematician

Karl Rubin Karl Cooper Rubin (born January 27, 1956) is an American mathematician at University of California, Irvine as Thorp Professor of Mathematics. Between 1997 and 2006, he was a professor at Stanford, and before that worked at Ohio State University b ...

. She was married to Michael Young from 1975 to 1990 and had a daughter, Laura. Judith Young died from complications resulting from

multiple myeloma Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibody, antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone ...

, a disease she lived with for eight years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Judith 1952 births 2014 deaths American women physicists 20th-century American physicists American women astronomers Recipients of the Annie J. Cannon Award in Astronomy Harvard College alumni University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Deaths from multiple myeloma American women academics 20th-century American astronomers 21st-century American astronomers 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American physicists Rubin family