Dr. Dr. Susanne M. Hoffmann
Postdoctoral Researcher
Applied Historical Astronomy; Cultural Astronomy
Susanne M Hoffmann is an astronomer with research topics in cultural astronomy. Her background is Graeco-Babylonian history of astronomy and mathematics, but she also works with astronomical material from other Eurasian cultures, e.g. from Egypt, India, China, Arabia and Central Europe. She is internationally known for her leadership roles in the International Astronomical Union, specifically the Working Group on Star Names and Commission C5 "Cultural Astronomy".
CV Keywords:
2025: Guest Stay at Brown University, USA (Dept. Egyptology & Assyriology)
2024: Guest Stay at USTC Hefei, China (History of Science & Technology)
2023: Guest Stay at Hebrew University Jerusalem (Assyriology)
2022: DAAD visit in 6th October City/ Kairo, Egypt (Data Science, Egyptology)
2017-2023: University of Jena, Germany (teaching physics & computer science)
2017: Guest Stay at Islamic University Walisongo Semarang, Indonesia (astronomy)
2017: Dr. phil., HU Berlin 2017, Dr. paed., Siegen, 2017
2010: Dipl.-WissHist., Hamburg
2005: Dipl.-Phys., Potsdam
More Details: CV on her Website
Publications: see her Website
Talks: see her website
Recorded Lectures: see her website
in Media: see her website
Blog at SciLogs: https://scilogs.spektrum.de/uhura-uraniae/
Recorded Lectures: see her website
All Skies Encyclopaedia (PI)
The ASE collects the data (etymologies, visual representations, history of transfer & transformation) on cultural names of stars and constellations in order to keep their heritage and distribute the knowledge about them beyond their culture of origin. It serves the IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN) as fact base for their monthly discussions of names to adopt in the IAU-Catalog of Star Names (CSN). The IAU policy of naming stars aims at the conscious inclusion of all cultures and enriching the names used in astrophysics with names from all cultures. To that end, the WGSN consists of scholars of cultural astronomy from all over the world, and the questions discussed for the adoption of names target only their usage in astrophysics communication. Together with the star database Simbad, the ASE also serves as a name resolver for cultural names and as a documentation of alternative names.
