Manuel Peimbert Sierra (born June 9, 1941) is a Mexican astronomer and a faculty member at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigge ...

(UNAM). He was named a foreign associate of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

in 1987.

Biography

Peimbert was born in 1941 in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of ...

. In his first year of college at UNAM, Peimbert went to the

Tonantzintla Observatory Tonantzintla Observatory ( es, Observatorio de Tonantzintla, link=no) is an astronomical observatory located in the municipality of San Andrés Cholula in the Mexican state of Puebla. It consists of two adjacent facilities: the National Astrophy ...

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

with a friend, Gerardo Bátiz, and they told the observatory director,

Guillermo Haro Guillermo Haro Barraza (; 21 March 1913 – 26 April 1988) was a Mexican astronomer. Through his own astronomical research and the formation of new institutions, Haro was influential in the development of modern observational astronomy in ...

, that they wanted to help at the observatory. Haro put them to work with a

Schmidt camera A Schmidt camera, also referred to as the Schmidt telescope, is a catadioptric astrophotographic telescope designed to provide wide fields of view with limited aberrations. The design was invented by Bernhard Schmidt in 1930. Some notable e ...

, and Peimbert and Bátiz found a number of

planetary nebula A planetary nebula (PN, plural PNe) is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelate ...

e, ten of which had never been described. They were later named the Peimbert-Bátiz nebulae, and subsequent study with astronomer Rafael Costero identified fourteen more. After earning an undergraduate physics degree from UNAM, Peimbert completed a doctorate at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

before returning to UNAM as a faculty member. He works at the UNAM Institute of Astronomy. From 1982 to 1988, Peimbert was vice president of the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach ...

. In 1987, Peimbert was elected a foreign associate of the

. He was inducted into the Colegio Nacional in Mexico in 1993. Peimbert was named a fellow of the

Third World Academy of Sciences The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

, and he was awarded one of the three TWAS Medal Lectures the first year they were held (1996). He received the

Hans Bethe Prize The Hans A. Bethe Prize, is presented annually by the American Physical Society. The prize honors outstanding work in theory, experiment or observation in the areas of astrophysics, nuclear physics, nuclear astrophysics, or closely related field ...

from the American Physical Society in 2012. Peimbert and his wife, fellow UNAM faculty member

Silvia Torres-Peimbert Silvia Torres-Peimbert (also known as Silvia Linda Torres Castilleja, born in 1940) is a Mexican astronomer. She won the L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2011 for Latin America for her work determining the chemical composition of n ...

, were the first non-U.S. scientists to win the Hans Bethe Prize. Peimbert was elected an international member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communi ...

in 2002. Peimbert is the great-grandson of writer

Justo Sierra Justo Sierra Méndez (January 26, 1848 – September 13, 1912), was a Mexican prominent liberal writer, historian, journalist, poet and political figure during the Porfiriato, in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peimbert, Manuel Living people 1941 births Mexican astronomers Scientists from Mexico City National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Academic staff of the National Autonomous University of Mexico Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences