Sidney C. Wolff

The CFH telescope was built due to image clarity on the mountain and is the first telescope Wolff helped develop.

After graduating, Wolff went on to earn her PhD in astronomy at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966.[2] While at Berkeley, she conducted research on binary stars with astronomer George Wallerstein. She also worked on a research project with her primary adviser and astronomer, George Preston, for her thesis which focused on stellar astronomy and A stars, a relatively new subject for astronomers at the time. Her thesis is titled A Spectroscopic and Photometric Study of the Peculiar A-Stars.[6] After earning her PhD, Wolff continued researching A stars and the nature of their magnetic fields and variability during her postdoctoral research which she began by commuting between the Lick Observatory at the University of California at Santa Cruz and Berkeley.[4]

She soon accepted a job opportunity for a new program and joined the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii where she worked as an assistant and associate astronomer from 1971 to 1976. While in Hawaii, Wolff spent 17 years contributing to the conversion of Mauna Kea into one of the world's top sites for astronomy. At an elevation of 14,000 feet (4,300 m), Mauna Kea is one of the clearest image sites due to its height and dryness. This changed ground-based astronomy and gained the attention of other astronomical organizations, eventually leading to the installation of the Canada-France-Hawaii telescope. Wolff also contributed to the construction of the SOAR 4.1-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory near La Serena, Chile.[7]

The WIYN observatory on Kitt Peak is renowned and partly developed by Wolff.

Wolff's leadership experience began in 1976, when she began serving as the associate director of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii until 1983 and later became acting director until 1984.[8] Later that year, Wolff left Hawaii as she was named Director of the Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) in Tucson, Arizona until 1987. During her time at Kitt Peak, she contributed to the development of the WIYN 3.5-meter telescope.[7]

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  Panorama taken of Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona where Wolff researched and worked on the development of telescopes.

In the spring of 1987, Wolff was named the Director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories until 2001. This made her the first woman in American history to lead a major observatory and the longest serving director of NOAO.[8][9] In 1985 and 1986, Wolff became the second woman to hold the position of President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and again as President of the American Astronomical Society in 1992.[10]

From 1992 to 1994, Wolff served as the first Director of the Gemini Project and played a major role in the proposal of the Gemini 8-Meter Telescopes Project.[7]

Wolff has been an active member of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) since the 1980s and is a current member of Division G Stars and Stellar Physics. The division consists of over 3,000 members and is focused on understanding star masses, how they evolve, and their properties by using research techniques such as observation, theory, measurements, and predictions about stars and stellar physics.[11] Wolff was also a former Organizing Committee Member of Commission 29 Stellar Spectra from 1982 to 1988 and a member of Division IV stars until 2012. Until 2015, Wolff was also a member of Commission 29 Stellar Spectra and Commission 36 Theory of Stellar Atmospheres.[2] In addition to being a member of the IAU, Wolff is also a member of the Royal Astronomical Society and the American Astronomical Society.[5]