Lloyd Motz (June 5, 1909, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania – March 14, 2004,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) was 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 ...

Biography

Born in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, Motz graduated from the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

1930 and earned a Ph.D. in physics from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in 1936. Motz began teaching at Columbia the same year he completed his Ph.D., but over the years also taught courses at the

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the New York City borough of Queens. Part of the City University of New York system, Queens College occupies an campus primarily located in Flushing. Queens College was established in 1937 and offe ...

, Polytechnic University, and

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

. From 1959 to 1992 he mentored in a program he initiated, the Columbia University Science Honors Program for high school students. (His course for ninth graders on 'astronomy to the three-body problem' was known as "Motz for Tots.") College courses he taught included introductory astronomy, astronomical physics, and celestial mechanics. During the 1970s he hosted a

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program, ''Exploration of the Universe''. He founded the

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chapter at Columbia's School of General Studies. A scholarship was established at Columbia in Motz's honor in 1996. Motz was noted for having defeated

Enrico Fermi Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian and naturalized American physicist, renowned for being the creator of the world's first artificial nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1, and a member of the Manhattan Project ...

in a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

match, and then discussing not his strategy (which was to play the net), but to give a speech on how the conservation of momentum applied to tennis balls and the tightness of strings on the racquets.

Publications

Lloyd Motz was the author of 21 books on astronomy, including ''The Constellations'' (1988, ) co-authored with Carol Nathanson. He also teamed with Jefferson Hane Weaver in authoring books on astronomy, general science, and mathematics, to include ''The World of Physics: The Einstein Universe and the Bohr Atom'' (1987, ), ''The Concepts of Science: From Newton to Einstein'' (1988, ), ''The Unfolding Universe: A Stellar Journey'' (1989, ), ''The Story of Physics'' (1989, ), ''Conquering Mathematics: From Arithmetic to Calculus'' (1991, ), ''The Story of Astronomy'' (1995, ). Some of his books were translated into other languages.

Death

He died in 2004 in New York City. He is survived by his wife for 70 years, Minnie, son, Dr. Robin Motz, daughter Julie Motz, grandchildren Jeremy, Nicole and Benjamin and great granddaughter Isabella. Great Grandson Aidan Wilson.

References

*''Columbia University, School of General Studies News: GS Mourns the Loss of Lloyd Motz, Professor Emeritus of Astronomy'', April 2004

*''Social Security Death Index''

{{DEFAULTSORT:Motz, Lloyd Columbia University faculty Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American astronomers 1909 births 2004 deaths