https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11207-023-02199-2
Andy Skumanich holding glass upright—cheers to a fabulous life.
This fascinating memoir covers the scientific life of Dr. Andrew Skumanich, starting with his family’s background and their immigration to the US. It continues with Andy's childhood, early education, and his influential introduction to science. Andy describes ;"the singular event, which launched me into the study of astronomy and ultimately physics, was a brilliant red (oxygen) nighttime aurora in August of 1939." He covers his professional research career including the discussion of a variety of institutions and areas of physics study, culminating in his academic pursuit of solar physics. After finishing his graduate studies, Andy was hired as head of a newly formed section in the Weapons Test Division or J-division of LASL in Los Alamos, NM. He participated in four weapons test operations. Following the comprehensive test ban treaty negotiated by President Eisenhower in 1958, Andy accepted a Assistant Professorship appointment at the University of Rochester in New York where he gladly reentered the academic environment. Then in 1961 Walt Robersts asked Andy to join HAO as a staff scientist. In addition, Andy lectured in the Department of Astrogeophysics at the University of Colorado. This memoir finishes by reviewing in detail his career at HAO as a major innovator and contributor to the advancement of solar-stellar astrophysics.