Karen Strom

Karen Marie Strom (née Lewallen; August 18, 1941 – April 29, 2014) was an American astronomer known for her work on stellar evolution and T Tauri stars,[2] and described as a "world leader in the study of star formation".[3] She was also a fine art photographer whose work is in the collections of multiple museums, and a historian of Native American culture.[4]

Karen Strom
Born
Karen Marie Lewallen[1]

(1941-08-18)August 18, 1941
Fairfax, Oklahoma, U.S.
DiedApril 29, 2014(2014-04-29) (aged 72)
Alma materHarvard College
Occupations
  • Astronomer
  • Photographer
SpouseStephen Strom
Scientific career
Institutions
Websitekarenstrom.com

Life

Strom was born in Fairfax, Oklahoma, on August 18, 1941. After graduating from Harvard College in 1964, she worked for several years at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. In 1969, she followed her husband Stephen Strom to Stony Brook University as a research associate, and in 1972 they moved again to the Kitt Peak National Observatory, in Tucson, Arizona.[2] They moved again to the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1983,[2][3] where Stom became a research associate and later Senior Research Fellow,[3] returning to Tucson in 1998.[4] She died on April 29, 2014.[5][6]

Photography

Strom's photograph "Chapel Grid" (1981), a gelatin silver print, is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.[7] Four of her digital prints, studies of the tilework at the Alhambra from 2012 to 2013, are in the collection of the Tucson Museum of Art.[8] Others of her works are in the collections of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.[4]

Recognition

In 1986 the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics in Mexico gave Strom an honorary doctorate.[4][9]

Minor planet 4604 Stekarstrom, discovered in 1987, was named after Strom and her husband.[10]

References
  1. "Karen M. Strom", Henryetta Daily Free-Lance, p. 3, May 25, 2014
  2. Hirshfeld, Alan (December 2018), "Obituary: Karen M. Strom (1941–2014)", Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 50: 010, Bibcode:2018BAAS...50..010H
  3. Irvine, William M., Reflections on the Growth of Astronomy at the University of Massachusetts and the Five College Astronomy Department (PDF), University of Massachusetts Amherst, p. 40
  4. Strom, Karen, About Karen M. Strom, retrieved 2023-08-25
  5. "Deaths", Arizona Daily Star, pp. A25, May 3, 2014
  6. Strom, Steve (December 2014), Steve & Karen Strom's Photography Newsletter
  7. "Karen M. Strom: Chapel Grid", The MFAH Collections, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, retrieved 2023-08-25
  8. "Acquisitions" (PDF), A Sense of Place: Annual Report 2015–2016, Tucson Museum of Art, p. 25, retrieved 2023-08-25
  9. "Karen Marie Strom", Astrogen, American Astronomical Society, retrieved 2023-08-25. Note that AstoGen lists Strom's honorary doctorate as 1995; other sources say 1986.
  10. "(4604) Stekarstrom = 1971 TC1 = 1979 BC2 = 1984 UY = 1987 SK", Minor Planet Center, International Astronomical Union, retrieved 2023-08-25
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