Helmut Abt

Helmut Arthur Abt (born 26 May 1925) is a German-born American astrophysicist, having worked at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory and an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is astronomer emeritus at Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Helmut was born in Helmstedt, Germany, then his family emigrated to the United States when he was two. He received his B.S. in Mathematics from Northwestern University in 1946, M.S. in Physics from Northwestern University in 1948, and became the first person to be awarded a Ph.D. in astrophysics at California Institute of Technology in 1952 for his thesis work on W Virginis.

He then spent a year at Lick Observatory. From 1953 to 1959 he was assistant professor at Yerkes Observatory, part of the University of Chicago, then joined the staff of the Kitt Peak National Observatory as an astronomer, where he remained until 2000. From 1966 to 1968, he was President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. During 1971–1999 he was managing editor of the Astrophysical Journal.

His areas of research include stellar rotation; binary stars, including spectroscopic binaries; stellar classification; and bibliometrics of astronomy publications.