Virpi Niemelä

Who was Virpi Niemelä?

Virpi Sinikka Niemelä was a leading Finnish Argentine astronomer. She was the second Argentine to be elected for Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Born in Finland, she emigrated with her family to Argentina in 1954. She became a citizen, married and had two sons.

She became a student of Jorge Sahade, got a PhD in 1974, and for her whole career collaborated with him. Her work has had a strong influence in the areas of massive stars and close binaries, especially Wolf-Rayet stars. She pioneered work on Wolf-Rayet stars in the Magellanic Clouds, massive stars in stellar associations and interstellar bubbles around massive stars. She also helped to develop astronomy in Argentina, inspiring many students.

To mark her seventieth birthday, an international workshop on massive stars was held in Carilo on 11-14 December 2006. During the workshop, it was announced that asteroid 5289 would be named Niemela in her honour. However, she died just before her birthday, of breast cancer.