Former Goddard Senior Scientist Dies

	Dr Ann Underhill 1920 -2003 Photo Credit: UBC

Dr. Ann B. Underhill who served as senior scientist for the Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics (Code 680) from 1978 -1985 suffered from a heart attack on July 5, 2003. Prior to becoming senior scientist at Goddard, Underhill was Chief of Laboratory for Optical Astronomy (code 670) from 1970 - 1977 and oversaw the development of a satellite carrying a telescope and spectrographs for observing stars from space and measuring their ultraviolet spectra and analyzed ultraviolet spectra of stars.

Underhill's interest was in the interpretation of the spectra of hot stars (spectral types B, O, and Wolf-Rayet) and after retiring from Goddard, Underhill's continued her interest and became a member of the University of British Columbia's (UBC) astronomy group as an honorary professor.

The University of British Columbia's astronomy website, states that, "During the 1960's and '70's she was one of the highest cited astronomers from Canada and has played a key role in our understanding of hot, massive stars in our galaxy."