astronomy

Norma J. Lang

Norma J. Lang is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Norma J. Lang rather than just read about it. In short: Norma J. Lang was a phycologist and Professor of Plant Biology, Emerita at the University of California, Davis from 1963 to 1991.

Key takeaways

Norma J. Lang belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Norma J. Lang to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Norma J. Lang from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Norma J. Lang was a phycologist and Professor of Plant Biology, Emerita at the University of California, Davis from 1963 to 1991. Her research primarily focused on understanding the structure of green algae and cyanobacteria.

Early education Lang was born on July 25, 1931 in Memphis, Tennessee. She graduated from high school in Toledo, OH. She started her bachelor's education at Bowling Green University, but transferred to Ohio State University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in 1952 and Master of Arts in 1958. Lang earned a Ph.D. in botany in 1962 from Indiana University Bloomington for her doctoral research under advisor Richard C. Starr. She held a brief post-doctoral position under Dr. Gordon Whaley at the University of Texas funded with an NIH fellowship.

Career Lang was an early adopter of transmission electron microscopy, which she used to study the ultrastructure of green algae and cyanobacteria during her Ph.D and into her early career. She was recognized for this work in 1969 with the Darbaker Prize by the Botanical Society of America for "the best paper on microscopic algae published worldwide in the previous two years." She began as a professor at University of California, Davis in 1963. In 1968, Lang was elected as a Guggenheim Fellow, which allowed her to visit the University of London during a sabbatical. She retired in 1991. Lang was one of the original Board of Trustees for the Phycological Society of America and served as president in 1975. In 1977, she described a new species, Starria zimbabweensis N.J. Lang. 1977, which is the type species for the genus Starria. She named the genus after her doctoral advisor Richard C. Starr, who had donated the cultured bacteria to Lang before its description.

Personal life After retiring in 1991, Lang volunteered at the Woodland Public Library in their adult literacy program. She also trained and showed dogs at obedience competitions. Lang died on June 5, 2015 at the age of 83.

Legacy and bequests Lang bequeathed an unrestricted endowment of $900,000 to the library at the University of California, Davis, which led to the establishment of the Archives and Institutional Assets Program, which helps collect, curate, and preserve research materials, and the Norma J. Lang Library Student Research Prize fund, which is awarded to undergraduate researchers annually at UC Davis. She also left $900,000 to the Phycological Society of America endowment fund. The society annually awards the Norma J. Lang Early Career Fellowship, a $10,000 fellowship to help early career researchers start new research projects about algae. The standard author abbreviation N.J.Lang is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.

External links Video interview with Lang from 1997

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Norma J. Lang

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Norma J. Lang claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Norma J. Lang before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Norma J. Lang ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Norma J. Lang

In research: Norma J. Lang appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Norma J. Lang in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Norma J. Lang is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1931 births, 2015 deaths, Indiana University Bloomington alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Norma J. Lang outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Norma J. Lang in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Norma J. Lang means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Norma J. Lang out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Norma J. Lang in simple terms?

Norma J. Lang was a phycologist and Professor of Plant Biology, Emerita at the University of California, Davis from 1963 to 1991.

Why does Norma J. Lang matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Norma J. Lang?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Norma J. Lang.