Elizabeth Roemer
Elizabeth Pat Roemer was an American astronomer whose research interests were centered on comets and asteroids.
In 1955, Roemer earned her PhD from UC Berkeley and continued there as an assistant astronomer for a time. She also conducted research at the University of Chicago's Yerkes Observatory.
In 1966, Roemer was hired to be an assistant professor in the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Three years later she was hired to be a full-time professor. Roemer is noted as a recover of lost comets. She discovered the two main-belt asteroids 1930 Lucifer and 1983 Bok. In addition, she took an extensive set of photographic plates of comets over 25 years, attempting to get consistent data for the magnitudes of the comet nuclei. She was well known for detecting 79 returning short period comets during her career. She also was able to compute many orbits for comets and minor planets in our solar system. In 1975, she also co-discovered Themisto, one of the 79 moons of Jupiter.
The inner main-belt asteroid 1657 Roemera, discovered by Swiss astronomer Paul Wild in 1961, was named in her honor.Awards
Roemer received 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.
