Biography:Rita G. Lerner

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Short description: American physicist, librarian

Rita Dorothy Guggenheim Lerner (May 7, 1929 – July 16, 1994)[1] was an American physicist, librarian, editor, and science communicator who worked for many years at the American Institute of Physics. With George L. Trigg, she was co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Physics (Addison-Wesley, 1981).[2]

Life

Rita Guggenheim was born in New York, New York, in 1929,[1][3] and was a 1945 graduate of Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School.[4] She earned a bachelor's degree from Radcliffe College in 1949,[3] and was managing editor of the college yearbook.[5] She went to Columbia University for graduate study, earning a master's degree in 1951 and (as Rita G. Lerner) completing her Ph.D. in 1956;[3] her dissertation was Microwave Studies of Molecular Structure.[6]

She came to the American Institute of Physics in the 1960s, hired as part of a program funded by the National Science Foundation for the improvement of scientific communication.[7]

She died on July 16, 1994, in Ardsley, New York.[1]

Recognition

Lerner was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1986.[8]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Rita Guggenheim, 1929 – 1994", Hohenems Genealogie: Jüdische Familiengeschichte in Vorarlberg und Tirol (Jewish Museum of Hohenems), http://www.hohenemsgenealogie.at/gen/getperson.php?personID=I8266&tree=Hohenems, retrieved 2021-04-28 
  2. Reviews of Encyclopedia of Physics:
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Front Matter", The Library Quarterly (University of Chicago Press) 54 (1): 105–106, January 1984, doi:10.1086/601430 
  4. "In memoriam", Alumni and Friends of LaGuardia High School, https://alumniandfriends.org/inmemoriam/page/5/, retrieved 2021-04-28 
  5. "Baker Becomes Head Of 'Cliffe's Yearbook", The Crimson, April 28, 1948, https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1948/4/28/baker-becomes-head-of-cliffes-yearbook/ 
  6. Dissertation Abstracts, 16, University Microfilms, 1956, p. 8, https://books.google.com/books?id=Rz4hAQAAMAAJ 
  7. Doel, Ronald (August 12, 1991), "William Havens - Session V", Oral Histories (American Institute of Physics), https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/31723-5 
  8. Historic Fellows, American Association for the Advancement of Science, https://www.aaas.org/fellows/historic, retrieved 2021-04-28