astronomy

Pierre Kaufmann

Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann rather than just read about it. In short: Pierre Kaufmann (1938 – 17 February 2017) was a French physicist and astronomer. He worked at Mackenzie University, Unicamp, and USP, and founded research into radio astronomy and solar physics in Brazil.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Pierre Kaufmann (1938 – 17 February 2017) was a French physicist and astronomer. He worked at Mackenzie University, Unicamp, and USP, and founded research into radio astronomy and solar physics in Brazil.

Career He studied physics at Mackenzie Presbyterian University, starting in 1957, and graduating in 1961, before going to Leiden University and Groningen University. He was the principal researcher of the Solar Submillimeter Telescope and Solar-T, and started the Atmospheric Science program at the Brazilian Antarctic Program. He founded research into radio astronomy, spatial geodesy, and solar physics in Brazil. He helped install the first radio telescope in Brazil in 1962, at the Professor Aristóteles Orsini Planetarium, but the antenna was subsequently destroyed by cows. He was funded by FAPESP is its first year of operation, to work on radio star scintillation. He also helped construct radio telescopes in Campos do Jordão and at Itapetinga Radio Observatory. He was a professor at the Mackenzie Presbyterian University since 1998, where he was coordinator for the Center for Radio Astronomy and Astrophysics, and a senior researcher at the Centre for Semiconductor Components (Portuguese: Centro de Componentes Semicondutores) at UNICAMP, as well as an associate professor at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo. He published over 200 papers, and supervised 17 Masters students, 7 PhD students, and 8 postdocs. He was also the president of the URSI Brazilian National Committee between 1989 and 2009. He was a member of the IAU, COSPAR, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (since 1987), and the Brazilian Astronomical Society. He was an associate member of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Personal life Kaufman was born in 1938. He grew up on a farm in Aix-en-Provence, south France, and became interested in astronomy as a child. His family moved to Brazil in 1941, fleeing World War II. He joined the Association of Amateur Astronomers as a teenager, in 1954. He had a brother. He died in São Paulo on 17 February 2017, aged 78.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Pierre Kaufmann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann

In research: Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann 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: Pierre Kaufmann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1938 births, 2017 deaths, Academic staff of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Pierre Kaufmann 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Pierre Kaufmann” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Pierre Kaufmann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pierre Kaufmann in simple terms?

Why does Pierre Kaufmann 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 Pierre Kaufmann?

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 Pierre Kaufmann.