In Memoriam - Judith Phipher: The Mother of Infrared Astronomy
Courtesy of University of Rochester
Dr. Judy Pipher was a New York Space Grant (NYSG) affiliate director at the University of Rochester and an instrumental member in NYSGs mission to inspire, engage and educate students in STEM disciplines. She was an active member in her local, state, national and international communities through her research and leadership and following her peaceful passing on February 21, 2022 we would like to highlight her and her work.
University astronomers Judith Pipher, Bill Forrest, graduate student Meghan Dorn, and Craig McMurtry pose with an infrared detector array in Bausch & Lomb Hall in 2013. (University of Rochester photo / J. Adam Fenster)
Dr. Judy Pipher, a native of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, graduated as an astronomy major from the University of Toronto. Following her time at the University of Toronto, she attended Cornell University, in Ithaca NY, where she obtained her Ph.D. During her time as a graduate student at Cornell, she taught high school and college level science classes. Her doctoral research was innovative in the field of infrared and submillimeter astronomy, as she was the first woman to pursue ultra-sensitive light detection of celestial bodies.
She received her Ph.D. from Cornell in 1971 and soon joined the Physics and Astronomy Department at the University of Rochester, where she was the only female faculty member in the physics department and continued as a full-time professor at the University of Rochester for over 50 years. As a professor at the University of Rochester, Judy directed the C.E.K Mees Observatory, played a significant role in revising undergraduate astronomy courses and was one of the first US astronomers to take the first telescopic infrared pictures of starburst galaxies.
In 2002, Judy received the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award for her involvement in infrared technology, strong leadership qualities, and for her work as an exemplary role model for women in STEM. She retired as a full-time professor that same year, but continued her research and student advising work for many years to come. In 2003, Dr. Pipher helped design the infrared array camera for the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, which featured ultra-sensitive InSb arrays. Over her illustrious career, Dr. Pipher had a scientific emphasis of study for star forming regions, particularly spatial configurations of forming stars, and their relationship to their environment. Her research also concentrated on arrays she designed, which are used to observe planetary nebulae, brown dwarfs, and the Galactic Center.
The Infrared Lab, circa 2016. From left, Judith Pipher, Bill Forrest, Meghan Dorn, Josh Rosser, Craig McMurtry, and Mario Cabrera. (photo courtesy of Meghan Dorn ’19 (PhD)
In the recent past, Dr. Pipher and a team of colleagues at the University of Rochester developed the NEOCam sensor, a Mercury-cadmium-telluride (HgCdTe) infrared-light sensor intended for the proposed Near-Earth Object Camera. The sensor was designed to improve the ability to detect potentially hazardous objects such as asteroids. The team was also successful in obtaining a NYSTAR grant from the state in collaboration with ITT and RIT to help ITT expand the capability of their modular advanced space-borne camera systems. That collaboration was continued with CEIS and New York Space Grant (NYSG) funding, and the group has pursed infrared wavelength tracking as well as new assessment and analysis techniques for infrared arrays.
Dr. Pipher chaired and served on numerous national committees that determine funding in astrophysics for NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). She has authored more than 200 scientific articles and papers, and a scientific editor of the Astrophysical Journal since 2002. Dr. Pipher was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007 for her work in infrared detector array development for astronomy, and a Discover Magazine article from 2009 considered Dr. Pipher to be “the mother of infrared astronomy. Dr. Pipher served on the Board of Trustees of Universities Space Research Association (USRA) since April 2011. Asteroid 306128 Pipher was named in her honor in January 2018, and the American Astronomical Society elected her as a Legacy Fellow in 2020.