Louise Gray Young
About Optica
In Memoriam: Louise Gray Young, 1935-2018
02 March 2018
Louise Gray Young, OSA Fellow, passed away on 2 March 2018 at the age of 82. Young distinguished herself in the area of molecular spectroscopy and spent her career as a senior scientist within the aerospace industry. She joined OSA in 1963 and became an OSA Fellow in 1976.
Young received her B.S. (1958) and M.S. degrees (1959) from the University of California at Los Angeles in engineering. She went on to get a Ph.D. in engineering science from the California Institute of Technology. In 1965, she joined the engineering faculty of the University of California at Los Angeles. Young moved to the University of Texas at Austin in 1967, where she became a research associate in astronomy. She also worked as a senior scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory until 1974 and was a research scientist at Texas A&M University. Young’s research focused on planetary atmospheres, especially of the earth and Venus in the infrared, and their spectral absorption properties.
Young was a member of the American Astronomical Society, the International Astronomical Union and the American Meteorological Society. She served as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer (1969-1977). During her career, Young was a noted contributor on projects for NASA and other governmental agencies.
She was survived by her husband, Andrew T. Young, children, relatives and friends. OSA and the scientific community mourns the loss of Louise Gray Young.
