Sumner Starrfield
American astronomer

Sumner Grosby Starrfield (born 29 December 1940) is an American astronomer.
Starrfield earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley and completed his master's and doctoral degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began teaching at Arizona State University in 1972, and was later named a Regents' Professor at the institution. In 1999, Starrfield was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society "[f]or fundamental contributions to our understanding of the cause and evolution of the nova outburst involving forefront observational and theoretical studies of these explosions." From 2002 to 2005, Starrfield was head of the publication board for the American Astronomical Society, and later ran for the vice presidency.
Starrfield is married to Susan Lee Hutt, with whom he raised three children. The minor planet 19208 Starrfield is named for him.
“Sumner Starrfield” enters the record as american astronomer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Sumner, Starrfield and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q113126842. VIAF identifies the subject as 109450236. The Library of Congress control number is n86028905. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 1972, 1999 and 2002.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sumner Starrfield” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.