smh_gross_quad_550Dr. 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, edutainment, 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
  • 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