Louis G. Henyey

[1] In Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago he earned his doctorate in 1937, with a mathematical thesis on the topic of reflection nebulae.

At Berkeley he became head of his own research group in the field of stellar evolution and supervised and collaborated with numerous graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and scientific visitors.

First, he developed a method for automatic solution of the equations of stellar evolution, suitable for electronic computers and applicable to a wide range of physical conditions and phases in the lifetime of a star.

Second, he made new calculation of the evolution of stars during their early history when gravitational contraction provides the main energy source, and during the transition phase when nuclear energy takes over from the gravitational source.

His work on the diffusion of the light in galaxies resulted in what is referred to as the Henyey-Greenstein phase function,[2][3] first proposed in a paper he authored.