Otto Hermann Leopold Heckmann (June 23, 1901 – May 13, 1983) was a German mathematician and astronomer, director of the Hamburg Observatory from 1941 to 1962, after which he became the first director of the European Southern Observatory. He actively contributed to the creation of the third issue of the Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog. He also contributed to cosmology based on the fundamentals of general relativity, and in 1942 wrote the book Theorien der Kosmologie.
Early life and education
Otto Heckmann was born to Agnes Heckmann, née Grüter and Max Heckmann, a notary, a Catholic family in Opladen in 1901. He studied mathematics, physics, and astronomy at the University of Bonn. He wrote a thesis in astrometry under Karl Friedrich Küstner about a star cluster in Praesepe and received a doctorate in 1925. He married in 1925 and worked for two years in the Bonn Observatory with Küstner, who was involved in the planning of star catalog Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog 2 of the Northern Hemisphere. In 1929, Heckmann obtained his habilitation of astrometry in the star group Coma Berenices.
Heckmann initially thought that he could survive the system by retreating into science alone. Heckmann retired from the directorship of Hamburg Observatory in 1962. Klaus, Hildegard and Ulrike.
He died in his family circle in Regensburg while traveling to visit his son there.
Legacy
The asteroid 1650 Heckmann is named after him.
Awards
- James Craig Watson Medal in 1961
- Bruce Medal in 1964