Barbara Bell

United States

1922-2017

Obituary:

Dear Colleagues,

I am saddened to inform you that Barbara Bell passed away on Sept 25, 2017 at the age of 95.

Barbara received her PhD in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1951, under the direction of Donald Menzel, with her thesis entitled "A Study of Doppler and Damping Effects in the Solar Atmosphere." She continued to work at the Harvard College Observatory for more than 50 years. Working with Donald Menzel, Harold Glazer, Giancarlo Noci, and Bob Kurucz, her research focused originally on solar phenomena. She later collaborated with Bob Kurucz on an atomic line list with broad applications in astronomy.

Dr. Bell also donated to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to fund spectroscopic studies.

More information about her life and work can be found here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/bostonglobe/obituary.aspx?n=barbara-bell&pid=186838699&fhid=10107

With best regards,

Charles Alcock
Director, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics