Carlos Jaschek

Carlos Jaschek has left us suddenly on the 12th of April 1999 in Salamanca (Spain), where he and his wife were retired, on account of their ill health, in the family of their elder daughter. This bad news was painfully felt by his friends and all the astronomical community.

He was born in Germany, in Brieg, on the 2nd of March 1926, but he lived in Argentina from 1937 to 1973, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1952. He was successively: Astronomer in La Plata (1947-1957), Professor in Astrophysics and Director of the Astrophysical Department (La Plata University, 1957-1973), then Invited Professor at Perkins Observatory (1964 and 1967), Research Associate at the University of Chicago (1967), Invited Professor at Cordoba and Ohio State Universities (1968 and 1970), Invited Professor at Geneva University (1970), and after he left Argentina (1973), he was again Invited Professor at Geneva University (1973). Finally, he was Associate Professor (1974 to 1993) at Strasbourg University. During this period, he acquired French nationality.

His main specializations in astrophysics were stellar spectroscopy (many studies of particular stars and Be, B[e], Ae, Helium stars, Boo...) and stellar classification, both in close collaboration with his wife, Mercedes Jaschek (in particular, they introduced in the general classification the subgroup of Gallium stars), and finally stellar photometry, in collaboration with the Swiss teams, and also statistical astronomy and its handling.

With a good knowledge in stellar statistics, he was more specially interested in the archiving of astronomical observations, developed a great activity in the creation of data bases, and conducted an inquiry on the data centers in astronomy. In particular, he gave a strong impulse to the well-known C.D.S. (Centre de Données Stellaires) of Strasbourg University, of which he was the director from 1975 to 1990. He was interested also in the data base SIMBAD (Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data). He and others studied the possibility of its public access by Minitel and reviewed the activities of these centers in the Bulletin d'information du C.D.S. He participated also in several Hipparcos programs and studied some forms of exploitation for the data of this satellite.

He produced more than 250 publications and more than 15 books, as author or co-author, in particular catalogs and atlases: the Catalog of Bright Stars (so useful!), the Spectroscopic Atlas for the Southern Sky Stars, and the Atlas of UV Spectra, obtained with the IUE satellite. As principal books published with Mercedes Jaschek, let us note: The Classification of Stars (1987) and The Behavior of Chemical Elements in Stars (1995).

Mercedes & Carlos Jaschek ca. 1990. Photo courtesy of Yvette Andrillat.

As a member of several (14) organizing committees of scientific meetings, he was often the editor or co-editor of their proceedings. It should be noted Les Journées de Strasbourg, almost each year.

He was a member of the International Astronomical Union from 1958 and Vice-President and President of its Commission 45 (1973 to 1976), and a member of organizing committees of the Commissions 29, 33, and 5.

He participated in about 15 international colloquia, workshops, or symposia as Invited Speaker, gave conferences in several French and foreign observatories, and was also invited by the Academies of Sciences of Czechoslovakia, U.R.S.S., and Germany.

This international celebrity got him many honors and awards, including Past Member of the Royal Argentine Astronomical Society and Member of the Astronomische Gesselschaft.

He was a member of several research and administrative organizations, especially in France (Commissions of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and scientific committees of the Observatory and the University of Strasbourg).

Another aspect of his scientific work was his teaching, and he gave several kinds of lectures: Introduction to Astronomy, General Astrophysics, Stellar Atmospheres, Galactic Structure, Spectroscopy, Statistical Astronomy, Radioastronomy, and Ethnoastronomy. He wrote several books for students, led many candidates to their theses, and was often a juryman.

Moreover, he was always interested in history, and in particular in the history of astronomy. With the aim of entering into relations with the ethnologists interested in astronomy of old civilizations, he set up meetings upon such topics twice a year in Strasbourg, which led to a particular series of publications of Strasbourg Observatory, entitled Astronomie et Sciences Humaines. To give a European color to those cultural activities, he created in 1992 the SEAC (Société Européenne de l'Astronomie pour la Culture).

His interest in the history of sciences led him also to go in for the patrimony of French observatories, its diversity, its wealth, its emphasis, and its safe-keeping.

Carlos Jaschek was a highly cultured man. He was a lover of books, and especially of history books. His family, astronomy, its cultural influence, and its teaching was all his life. Everyone who has known him will speak of his humane qualities, his simpleness, his kindness, his optimism, and his uprightness, and he was always ready to help all the others.

He and his wife were inseparable in their life as well as in their work.

He was internationally known, and his disappearance, very sadly felt by his friends, is really a great loss for the whole of astronomy.

Yvette Andrillat
8/17/99