Dr. Dr. Susanne M Hoffmann
… is an astronomer (and historian of astronomy) from Berlin, Europe.
- scientific staff at universities (preferred) & freelancing independent scholar in planetariums and museums
- Academic Background:
- history of science (specilized in astronomy)
- physics (specialized in astronomy)
- education (teacher education, public education, science journalism)
Activities / positions of honour
- engaged in the International Astronomical Union,
- Working Group Star Names
- Office for Astronomical Outreach
- data curator for constellations in the Stellarium team
- member of board: Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage (based in China)
- freelance astronomer in Planetarium Jena (Germany)
- collaborator of State Museum for Prehistory Halle (Germany)
Research in astronomy
Methods:
- data-driven history of exact science
- applied historical astronomy
- computational history
- data management / data curation
Main Topic: celestial globes and maps
- consisting of
- astrometry/ cartography
- technology
- mathematics of measurements
- astrometrical frames of reference, e.g.
- coordinate systems and their historical development
- constellations (as frame of reference, as cultural calendar)
- stars
- their cultural history/ names,
- their physics/ variabilities/ (exo)planets/
- novae, supernovae and all types of eruptions
- astrometry/ cartography
- modelling: planetarium (software) and data management
Further Research Topics
- gravity
- Newton
- Einstein’s general relativity
- microlensing
- optics
- telescopes and their historical development
- planetariums and their historical development
- basical concepts (history of optics: from antiquity to the present)
- time
Public Talk on Constellations (2018, Sonneberg Observatory):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyqdMHXJ4uE
Former research:
- visualizations in education/ didactics
- special and general relativity (teaching)
- excursions in science teaching
- gravitational microlensing