Chandra and his students at Yerkes Observatory

Abstract

S. Chandrasekhar’s interactions with graduate students in his more than a quarter century at Yerkes Observatory are described. His graduate teaching, Ph.D. thesis students, colloquia and colloquium series, and seminar series were all important aspects of this side of his scientific research career. His managing editorship ofThe Astrophysical Journal, his one experience in observational astrophysics, a second paper he wrote describing some of the early observational work at Yerkes Observatory, and a third on “the case for astronomy” are all discussed. A famous myth about one of his courses is corrected, and the circumstances under which the “S. Candlestickmaker” parody was written are recounted. Chandra’s computers, recruited in the Williams Bay community, are mentioned. A complete or nearly complete table of all the thesis students who received their Ph.D. degrees under his supervision, at Yerkes and on the campus in Chicago up through his last one in Astronomy and Astrophysics in 1973, is presented, with references to their published thesis papers.