Virginia L. Trimble
University of California, Irvine
For distinguished contributions to the field of astrophysics, exemplary scholarship as an educator and mentor, and for her dedication to Sigma Xi
Quote
"I am very proud to come from a Sigma Xi family! My father, chemist Lyne Starling Trimble (1912–1993) and husband, physicist Joseph Weber (1919–2000) were both also members."
Biography
Virginia L. Trimble is a native Californian and graduate of Hollywood High School (1961), the University of California, Los Angeles, and California Institute of Technology (PhD, astronomy 1968), with an honorary MA from the University of Cambridge and Dott. h.c. from the University of Valencia, Spain (2010).
At the University of California, Irvine, (UCI) she has slogged upward to now being the oldest professor of physics and astronomy in the department still on full active duty.
Trimble's early work included an investigation of the astronomical significance of the so-called air shafts in Cheops' pyramid; measuring gravitational redshifts in the spectra of white dwarfs; determining the distance, mass, and energetics of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant (thesis with Guido Munch); tracing the evolution of stars with unusual mass-composition combinations (with Bohdan Paczynski); looking for X-rays from single, cool, magnetic white dwarfs; and determining some statistical properties of binary stars. She also looked at indicators of the productivity and impact of specific astronomical facilities and individual astronomers. If you want to be highly cited, it paid to be a mature, prize-winning, theorist, working on high energy astrophysics or cosmology at a prestigious institution. It also paid to be male.
In recent years, much of Trimble's work has been in the history of astronomy and physics, including dark matter and star formation.
In addition to Sigma Xi, Trimble has held governance positions in multiple organizations including the American Astronomical Society and American Physical Society, typically reaching her level of incompetence at the level of vice president. She has been part of the scientific organizing committees for more than 60 conferences and part of the editorial boards of about a dozen journals, including CEO of a low-prestige one, and number two at a high prestige one. Her list of publications now exceeds 900.
She has attempted to help out on advisory bodies, panels, and reviewing for multiple journals, the NSF and NASA, KPNO and NRAO, Calspace and Lick Observatory, Las Cumbres Observatory and Physics Today book reviews.
Earlier recognition came in the form of Woodrow Wilson, NSF, and NATO fellowships. Over the years she has added to her accomplishments Fellowships in AAAS, APS, AAS, and the RAS equivalent; Asteroid 9172Trimble; and prizes from organizations including the American Astronomical Society and American Institute of Physics.
But if Trimble is remembered by the time of her 100th birthday, it will probably be for the Life magazine article (October 1962), her year as Miss Twilight Zone (1963–64), and for posing for Richard Feynman (Physics Nobel 1965) when he was learning to draw.
Her view on diversity and inclusion is that becoming a member of the scientific community is fairly hard work, and we need to make sure that it looks equally hard to young people from across the spectrum of gender, ethnicity, and social background, because the hard work is worth it!