Elizabeth Roemer

Elizabeth "Pat" Roemer (September 4, 1929 – April 8, 2016)[1] was an American astronomer and educator who specialized in astronomy with a particular focus on comets and minor planets.

Roemer graduated valedictorian of her high school class in 1946, and in that same year she won the National Westinghouse Science Talent Search.

[2] During her graduate studies at Berkeley, Roemer taught adult extension classes in Oakland to finance her tuition from 1950–1952.

From 1954–1955, she worked as an assistant astronomer and lab technician at UC’s Lick Observatory, and in 1955 she earned her PhD from Berkeley.

[2] After receiving her PhD, Roemer continued her time at UC as an assistant astronomer and conducted research at the University of Chicago’s Yerkes Observatory.

[1][2][3][4] She began to gain traction for rediscovering comets by using a high definition 40-inch reflecting telescope to photograph and analyze nuclei.

Roemer found these lost comets by searching the area they were predicted to be as they rounded the Sun and detected faint movement relative to surrounding stars.

[1][2][3] Roemer was noted as an exemplary member of the astronomy community and served on many astronomical commissions and organizations.

She was a recipient of the BA Gould Prize of the National Academy of Sciences, the NASA Special Award, and the Donohoe Lectureship of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

[8] Roemer expressed her hope that her Mademoiselle Merit Award would encourage others to explore the field of astronomy in a letter to the manager of Women’s News for Westinghouse.