Maria Assumpció Català i Poch

María Assumpció Català i Poch (Barcelona, 14 July 1925 – ib. 3 July 2009) was a Spanish professor, mathematician, and astronomer. She taught from 1952 to 1991. She started as an assistant in the Astronomy Section of the Seminar on Mathematics in Barcelona, related to the Spanish National Research Council (in Spanish, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, from this point forward abbreviated to, CSIC). Later, she worked in the Henri Poincaré Institute and she also cooperated in some projects with the special chair of Technology in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

In 1970, she was the first woman to earn a science PhD in the Mathematics Section of the University of Barcelona (UB). Her thesis's name was: Contribución al estudio de la dinámica de los sistemas estelares de simetría cilíndrica (in English, Contribution to the study of the dynamics of stellar systems with cylindrical symmetry). She performed systematic monitorings of sunspots and calculations of orbits and eclipses for more than thirty years.

She directed eleven degree theses and seven doctoral theses. In addition, she represented Spain in the Commission 46 on the Education of the Astronomy of the International Astronomical Union for 15 years and she worked as the scientific consultant for the Astronomy section of the Spanish version of National Geographic magazine.

She retired in 1984, but she continued contact with the astronomy and university communities, attending events such as the biannual meetings of the Spanish Society of Astronomy. and she started working as professor in the Department of Astronomy of the UB. Between 1982 and 1984, she worked as associate professor teaching , Astrophysics, Geophysics and Geodesy; the last of which she taught when it was reestablished in the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology of the UB. For that reason, she scientifically cooperated with the Cartographic Institute of Catalonia.

At the same time, the doctor spoke at specific seminars and specialized courses about astronomy.

As well as having been a teacher and a professor, she also held position in some important international and national organizations. For example, she has been a member of the International Astronomical Union since 1976 and, for 15 years, represented Spain in the Commission 46 of this union on the topic Education About Astronomy. Additionally, she was a member of the European Astronomical Society, the Spanish Society of Astronomy, the Catalan Society of History of Science and Technology and the Catalan Society of Mathematics. Since 1978 she also took part in the History of Science Studies Research Group and, since 1997, she was the scientific advisor of the Astronomy Section of the Spanish version of the magazine of National Geographic.

Moreover, she was a member of the Astronomy Teaching Commission created by the Direcció General de Batxillerat and sponsored by the Department of Earth and Cosmological Physics of the UB in 1983.

Apart from that, she wrote several books and notes as study material, for example, she wrote a book with astronomy notes which has been, and already is, used among the astronomy community.

She retired in 1990.

Research career In 1954, Català obtained a scholarship from the CSIC to investigate Spherical Astronomy through calculations and rectification of orbits of comets. Additionally, in the International Geophysical Year (1957–1958), she worked on observational astronomy, calculation and rectification of orbits of comets, and daily observation of sunspots and prominences in the Observatory of the Chair of Astronomy of the UB in cooperation with the Spanish National Observatory. This collaboration had important results as the discovery of Van Allen radiation belt and the launch of the first satellite Sputnik 1.

Between 1974 and 1990 she also worked on the study of stellar systems dynamics. In 1978, the possession of a Catalan grant to promote the research in the university funded her research in spherical astronomy, eclipse, occultations, and transit calculations, stellar systems dynamics and galactic dynamics.

Between 1976 and 1979, she worked at the Henri Poincaré Institute because of a program of Spanish-French scientific cooperation and the University of Paris VI. On the other hand, she researched the structure of the Oort cloud at the Observatorie de Meudon.

Català had also the opportunity to take part in different financed projects such as that of the European Space Agency which aimed to select and determine the stellar and planetary positions using Hipparcos satellite.

Besides her research works, she also studied the Arab science and left works such as Las obras matemáticas de Maslama de Madrid (1965), Arquímedes árabe: el tratado de los círculos tangentes (1968) and Dos tratados del Arquímedes árabe: tratado de los círculos tangentes y el libro de los triángulos (1971).

Awards and honors Professor Emeritus as an honorary by the UB in 2004. Creu de Sant Jordi in 2009.

Eponymous Name of the reflecting telescope Dall-Kirham in the observatory of Centre d'Observació de L'Univer in LLeida.