George William Hill
George William Hill (
March 3,
1838 –
April 16,
1914), was a
U.S. astronomer and
mathematician.
Hill was born in
New York City,
New York, and moved to
West Nyack with his family when he was eight years old. After attending high school, Hill graduated from
Rutgers University in
1859. From
1861, he worked at the
Nautical Almanac Office in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. His work focused on the mathematics describing the
three-body problem, later the four-body problem, to calculate the orbits of the
Moon around the
Earth, as well as that of
planets around the
Sun.
The
Hill sphere, which approximates the
gravitational sphere of influence of one
astronomical body in the face of perturbations from another heavier body around which it
orbits, was described by Hill.
He became president of the
American Mathematical Society in
1894, serving for two years. He was elected to the
Royal Society of Edinburgh in
1908, as well as to the academies of
Belgium (
1909),
Christiania (
1910),
Sweden (
1913), among others.
Hill died in West Nyack, New York.
Awards*
Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society (
1887)
*
Damoiseau Prize from the
Institut de France (
1898)
*
Copley Medal (
1909)
*
Bruce Medal (
1909)
Named after him*
Hill crater on the
Moon*
Asteroid 1642 Hill*
