1877-1957
Astronomer

A Princeton Professor.

Henry Norris Russell was born at Oyster Bay, New York, on 25 October 1877. He was educated at home by his mother, an accomplished mathematician, and his father, a Presbyterian minister, until the age of twelve. At nineteen he graduated from Princeton insigne cum laude, the highest academic honor awarded at the university. Two years later he earned the Ph.D. in astronomy at Princeton for research on the orbits of binary stars. After a period of illness Russell continued his studies at Kings College, Cambridge University (1902-1904), where he did research at the Cavendish Laboratory. Along with Arthur R. Hinks, Russell developed a method for determining stellar parallax from photographic plates. Their technique enabled astronomers to determine more accurately the distances to far-off stars. In September 1904 Russell, again taken ill, returned to Princeton, where in 1905 he was appointed instructor of astronomy...