Chilean astronomer
María Teresa Ruiz (born 24 September 1946) is a Chilean astronomer who was the first woman to receive Chile's National Prize for Exact Sciences, the first female recipient of a doctorate in astrophysics at Princeton University, and the first woman president of the Chilean Academy of Sciences. She is known, too, for the discovery of the brown dwarf Kelu-1.
In 2018, she was listed as one of the top 10 most powerful and influential women in Chile owing to her scientific contributions.
During her career she has written two books about astronomy: "Desde Chile un cielo estrellado: lecturas para fascinarse con la astronomía (2013)" and "Hijos de las Estrellas" (2017).
Early life and education.
Ruiz was born in Santiago de Chile in 1946. In 1966, Ruiz started a program in chemical engineering at the University of Chile but found her vocation in attending an astronomy summer school: she continued her studies in the newly founded astronomy program at the University of Chile and was the first person to graduate the program, in 1971.
Career and research.
In 1975, upon completing her thesis work with Martin Schwarzschild, Ruiz became the first woman to obtain a PhD in astrophysics at Princeton University.
In 1997 she became the first woman in Chile's history to receive the country's National Prize for Exact Sciences. She held a postdoctoral research position at Trieste Observatory and worked for two years at UNAM, the Institute of Astronomy in Mexico.
Astronomic discovery.
In 1997, Ruiz discovered Kelu-1 which is a structure of two brown dwarfs. Kelu is also among the first systems of free floating brown dwarfs. This structure is located in the constellation named Hydra which sits approximately about 61 light years from planet Earth. It was a surprise for Ruiz when she found Kelu, because with all the experience she had, it was easy for her to recognize all the different bodies, although that was not the case this time. The spectrum that she detected was different and it was never seen before. However, she was able to detect lithium in that star and also notice that it was extremely red which is something similar in Brown Dwarfs. These two things helped her to confirm that this structure was a Brown Dwarf and one of the firsts free floating ones.
The name Kelu comes from the language Mapuche and it means “red”, in reference to the color of the star.
Personal life.
Ruiz' hobby is embroidery. She is capable of embroidering whole portraits of people and families, such as her own. She started the hobby when she went to study abroad: she wanted to remember her family, so she embroidered a family portrait to bring her loved ones with her.
She is married to the Chilean scientist and professor Fernando Lund. In 1980, they had a son named Camilo who is now a civil engineer.
References.
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