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Winifred Cameron

Winifred Sawtell Cameron (December 3, 1918 – March 29, 2016) was an American astronomer. She worked at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland for most of her career, and compiled the Lunar Transient Phenomena (LTP) database. She was involved in the Gemini and Apollo programs.

Winifred Cameron
A white woman with dark hair, from a 1964 newspaper
Winifred S. Cameron, from a 1964 newspaper
Born
Winifred J. Sawtell

December 3, 1918
Oak Park, Illinois
DiedMarch 29, 2016
Lehigh Acres, Florida
NationalityAmerican
OccupationAstronomer
Known forWorked on Gemini, Apollo programs
Notable workLunar Transient Phenomena database
SpouseRobert Curry Cameron

Early life

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Winifred J. Sawtell was born in Oak Park, Illinois, the daughter of Amos Alexander Sawtell and Mildred Winifred Shields Sawtell. Her father was an accountant.[1] She was a Girl Scout,[2] and graduated from Oak Park and River Forest High School in 1936.[3] She earned a bachelor's degree and a teaching credential at Northern Illinois University in 1940, and completed a master's degree in astronomy at Indiana University.[4]

Career

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After college, Sawtell worked at Weather Forecasts, Inc. in Chicago, from 1943 to 1946, and again from 1949 to 1950. She taught astronomy at Mount Holyoke College from 1950 to 1951. She was a researcher at the United States Naval Observatory from 1951 to 1958, analyzing sunspots.[4]

In 1959, Winifred Cameron and her husband both joined NASA's new Goddard Space Flight Center, where she was a lunar expert[5][6][7] and head of Data Acquisition and Analysis.[8] She compiled the Lunar Transient Phenomena (LTP) database, still in use.[9] She was astronomer-on-base at Cape Canaveral during two Mercury flights, and an advisor on the Apollo Moon landings.[4] She was the only woman scientist in attendance at the international Lunar Geological Field Conference in Oregon in 1965.[10] She gave frequent talks on her work to civic organizations, schools,[11] and amateur astronomers.[12][13]

In 1974, Cameron was a technologist at the National Space Science Data Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.[14] She retired from NASA in 1984, but continued working on the LTP database.[15] She was a member of the International Astronomical Union,[16] the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers.[4]

Personal life

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Winifred Sawtell married fellow astronomer Robert Curry Cameron in 1953.[17][18] They had two daughters, Selene and Sheri. Robert died in 1972. Winifred died in 2016, aged 98, in Lehigh Acres, Florida.

There is an asteroid named 1575 Winifred, after Cameron;[19] and she named a lunar crater Cameron in memory of her husband.[4]

References

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  1. ^ "Amos Alexander Sawtell". The Palm Beach Post. March 17, 1950. p. 4. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ "Girl Scouts". Oak Park Oak Leaves. December 18, 1931. p. 36. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  3. ^ "Many Students Enter Colleges as Freshmen". Oak Parker. September 18, 1936. p. 17. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  4. ^ a b c d e Hirshfeld, Alan. "Winifred S. Cameron (1918 - 2016) | American Astronomical Society". aas.org. Archived from the original on May 26, 2019. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  5. ^ Perkinson, William J. (June 28, 1966). "A Triple Watch on the Moon". The Evening Sun. p. 20. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Expert to Lecture on Moon Photos". The Evening Sun. October 21, 1964. p. 75. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ O'Keefe, John A.; Lowman, Paul D.; Cameron, Winifred S. (1967). "Lunar Ring Dikes from Lunar Orbiter I". Science. 155 (3758): 77–79. Bibcode:1967Sci...155...77O. doi:10.1126/science.155.3758.77. ISSN 0036-8075. JSTOR 1721091. PMID 17799150. S2CID 19699372.
  8. ^ "Astronomical League Convention Boasts NASA Officials as Speakers". York Daily Record. June 8, 1972. p. 15. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ North, Gerald (July 27, 2000). Observing the Moon: The Modern Astronomer's Guide. Cambridge University Press. pp. 357–358. ISBN 9780521622745. Winifred S. Cameron.
  10. ^ Wright, Tom (August 28, 1965). "Lunar Scientists Wind Up Oregon Meet". Statesman Journal. p. 12. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ "NASA Astronomer Enlists Local Help". Warren Times-Mirror and Observer. October 12, 1972. p. 14. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Astronomy Club Speaker Slated". Warren Times-Mirror and Observer. September 29, 1972. p. 13. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Public Lecture Tonight at Goethe Link Observatory". The Indianapolis Star. October 26, 1947. p. 15. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Scientist to Address Thiel Women". Simpson's Leader-Times. April 24, 1974. p. 8. Retrieved May 25, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Wilford, John Noble (July 20, 1980). "Scientists Intrigued by Lunar Phenomena". Tampa Bay Times. p. 14. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Winifred S. Cameron". International Astronomical Union. Retrieved May 26, 2019.
  17. ^ "Robert C. Cameron, Bride, Due Home from Honeymoon". The Indianapolis Star. November 8, 1953. p. 78. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ "Winifred Sawtell, Robert Cameron to Wed this Fall". Oak Park Oak Leaves. May 21, 1953. p. 39. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via NewspaperArchive.com.
  19. ^ "She Has Own Planet". The Daily Times. July 29, 1967. p. 3. Retrieved May 26, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
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