Gladys Vergara
Born
Gladys Elena Vergara Gavagnin

1928 (1928)
Died5 July 2016(2016-07-05) (aged 87–88)
Montevideo, Uruguay
NationalityUruguayan
Alma materUniversity of the Republic
Occupation(s)Astronomer, professor

Gladys Elena Vergara Gavagnin (1928 – 5 July 2016) was a Uruguayan astronomer and professor, known for her calculations on eclipses, made during a time when computers were not capable of them. The asteroid 5659 Vergara is named in her honor.[1][2][3][4]

Career

Vergara studied physical sciences and astronomy, at a time when both fields were inaccessible for women. She was part of the first generation of students of the Astronomy Department founded by Dr. Cernuschi in the University of the Republic's Faculty of Humanities and Sciences. In 1952, she was one of the founders of the Association of Astronomy Aficionados.[5] She was secretary of the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute.[1][2][6]

On 18 July 1968, Chilean astronomers Carlos Torres and S. Cofré discovered, at the Cerro El Roble Astronomical Station in Chile, a new main belt asteroid that was provisionally designated 1968 OA1. After Vergara's death, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) named the asteroid 5659 Vergara.[1][2][7]

Gladys Vergara was secretary of the directing council of the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute, according to the resolution approved by the First National Antarctic Convention, held in Montevideo from 24 to 27 April 1970.[8][9] The dictatorship of 1973 dismissed her and she was unemployed until the return of democracy in 1985.[2] Vergara was a professor of Astronomy of the Secondary Education Council.[2]

Vergara was the Director of the Observatory of Montevideo, a professor at the Surveying Institute of the Faculty of Engineering, and a professor at the Batlle y Ordóñez Institute when it was the Women's Institute.[2]

Vergara encouraged her students to buy a 10 cm Unitron refracting telescope that was used to inaugurate the Observatory of the Women's Institute of Secondary Education, Batlle y Ordóñez Institute (IBO), of which she was one of the founders in January 1976.[10]

She was one of the founders of the National Committee of Astronomy of Uruguay.[11]

At the Faculty of Engineering she was a classmate of Lic. Professor Esmeralda Mallada, in whose honor the asteroid 16277 Mallada was named.[12]

Gladys Vergara died in Montevideo on 5 July 2016.[13][14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "(5659) Vergara = 1968 OA1 = 1988 CE5". IAU Minor Planet Center. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Unión Astronómica Internacional designa asteroide (5659)Vergara" [International Astronomical Union Designates Asteroid 5659 Vergara] (in Spanish). Uruguay Educa. Archived from the original on 2 April 2017. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  3. ↑ "Comings and Goings" (PDF). The David Dunlap Doings. 22 (2): 3. 15 February 1989. ISSN 0713-5904. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  4. ↑ "Ella es astrónoma; la ciencia de Urania en la Educación Pública" [She is an Astronomer; the Science of Urania in Public Education] (in Spanish). Portal Uruguayo de Astronomía. 13 May 2009. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  5. ↑ "Historia" [History] (in Spanish). Association of Astronomy Aficionados of Uruguay. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "Uruguay to Join Treaty Nations" (PDF). Antarctic. New Zealand Antarctic Society: 432. June 1970. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 January 2015. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  7. ↑ "5659 Vergara (1968 OA1)". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Fontes, Waldemar (25 April 2010). "40 años de la Primera Convención Nacional Antártica" [40 Years Since the First National Antarctic Convention]. Historia del Uruguay en la Antártida (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  9. ↑ "Acto de Homenaje a la Profesora Gladys Vergara" [Tribute to Professor Gladys Vergara] (in Spanish). Antarkos Association. 2 November 2011. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  10. ↑ Minniti Morgan, Edgardo Ronald. "Quienes en la astronomia uruguaya" [Who's Who in Uruguayan Astronomy] (PDF) (in Spanish). Apuntes de Astronomía Latinoamericana. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  11. ↑ "Uruguay en el cielo" [Uruguay in the Heavens] (in Spanish). Instituto de Física. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  12. ↑ "Primer asteroide con el nombre de una mujer astrónoma uruguaya" [First Asteroid With the Name of a Uruguayan Woman Astronomer] (in Spanish). Uruguay Educa. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  13. ↑ "Astrónoma Prof. Gladys Elena Vergara Gavagnin". El Observador (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 November 2017.
  14. ↑ "Gladys Vergara Gavagnin". El Observador (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 November 2017.
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