Arcadio Poveda

Renán Arcadio Poveda Ricalde (born 15 July 1930) is a prominent Mexican astronomer who developed a method to calculate the mass of elliptical galaxies.[1] He received Mexico's National Prize for Arts and Sciences in 1975, chaired its National Astronomical Observatory from 1968 to 1980 and was elected to The National College in 1989.[2]

Arcadio Poveda
Poveda in 2014
Born	15 July 1930 Mérida, Yucatán [1]
Nationality	Mexican
Alma mater	University of California, Berkeley[2]
Known for	Poveda's formula[3]
Awards	National Prize for Arts and Science (Mexico, 1975)
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy
Institutions	National Autonomous University of Mexico

Poveda was born in Mérida, Yucatán. He initially enrolled at the National Autonomous University of Mexico but ended up graduating with both a Bachelor of Arts degree (1953) and a PhD in Astronomy (1956) from the University of California, Berkeley.[2] Afterward, he moved back to Mexico and enrolled at the Institute of Astronomy of the National Autonomous University, where he has worked as a researcher since 1956. As a visiting scholar, he has lectured at the Institute of Astrophysics in France (CNRS, 1963), Columbia University (1967), Kitt Peak National Observatory (1981–82, 1983–84), and at the University of California, San Diego (1982–83).[2]

A public planetarium in his native Mérida, Yucatán, is named in his honor.[4]