Leo Blitz

Leo Blitz (March 21, 1946 – December 20, 2022) was an American astronomer, researcher, and a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).

Early life Blitz was born in Munich on March 21, 1946, although his birth certificate was later altered (to October 21, 1946) because, in order for his family to emigrate to the US, he needed to be older and a Polish citizen.

His mother Maria, who grew up in the Warsaw Ghetto, survived Auschwitz and the Stutthof concentration camp, and was one of only 30 survivors of the Palmnicken Massacre. She met and married Leo's father Abraham Blitz in Krakow in 1945. Abraham Blitz, who was born in Poland but grew up in Vienna, was in Krakow serving in the occupying Soviet Army. He later completed his postdoctorate also from Columbia University in 1979 with Patrick Thaddeus as his doctoral advisor. Between 1978 to 1981 he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at UC Berkeley.

Starting in 1981, Blitz was appointed as a professor in the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) where he also researched on the star formation of GMCs. This work led Blitz to take up another survey project, Atlas 3d survey, to observe 30 galaxies for detecting CO using CARMA. He also was a professor of astronomy at the UC Berkeley and later became its emeritus professor. He also served as the Councillor of American Astronomical Society (AAS) from 1995 to 1998 and also in its Warner/Pierce Prize Committee from 2002 to 2003.

In 2006, Martin D. Weinberg, professor of astronomy at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, worked with Blitz to create a computer model to observe an obscure warp of the Magellanic Clouds in the Milky Way Galaxy. On the phenomenon, Blitz remarked that "it looks like the Milky Way is flapping in the breeze".

Between 2006 to 2008, Blitz was the director of the Allen Telescopic Array (ATA).

In 2013, Blitz recognized the potential of a technique, known as Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), to measure large masses of blackholes at farther distances. An year later, Blitz, among one of the astronomers, found out five stars (Cepheid variable) at a distance of 75,000 light-years away from Earth. He remarked that it was a challenging task as the thick dust blocks the light from any distant star.

As a professor, a total of 15 students including Nia Imara completed their postdoctorate under Blitz at the UC Berkeley.

Awards and honours Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 1984–1988, by the University of Maryland, Baltimore in Physics.