New Haven resident, astronomer best known as author of The Bright Star Catalogue and for her lifelong commitment to women in astronomy.

Dorrit Hoffleit was born in Alabama and raised in New Castle, Pennsylvania. Her interest in stars began as a young child watching fireballs appear to collide in the skies above her backyard. Hoffleit graduated from Radcliffe College with a degree in mathematics in 1928, then began her career as a research assistant at the Harvard Observatory where she soon became an expert at determining spectroscopically the absolute brightness of stars. Under the supervision of Harlow Shapley she went on to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy in 1938 for which she was awarded the Carolyn Wilby Prize for the best original research.

In 1943 Hoffleit joined the Ballistic Research Lab at the Aberdeen Proving Ground where she computed trajectories for missiles. She was the only Ph.D. hired at a sub-professional rating, the result of a discriminatory practice later corrected. At Harvard she had worked for 40 cents an hour when men were paid $1.00. In 1956, after 25 years at Harvard, Hoffleit came to Yale to run its star cataloging program.

In 1957 she was also named director of the Maria Mitchell Observatory at Nantucket, where she initiated a summer research program for undergraduates, primarily young women. Under her mentorship eleven of these women went on to earn Ph.D's in astronomy; collectively they discovered over 1,000 new variable stars and published over 90 research papers.

Hoffleit's major work during her years at Yale has been The Bright Star Catalogue , now in its fourth edition. She also wrote Astronomy at Yale, 1701-1968, produced hundreds of scholarly papers, co-authored the Fourth Edition of the Catalogue of Trigonometric Parallaxes , and for fifteen years provided “News Notes” on astronomical events and trends for Sky and Telescope magazine. Though officially retired since 1975, Hoffleit continues to do research for star catalogues as a Senior Research Scientist Emeritus.

Hoffleit's many awards include the 1988 George van Biesbroeck Award for dedication to Astronomy and the 1993 AAS-Annenberg Prize for science education. She is the past president of the American Association of Variable Star Observers, Asteroid Dorrit was named after her, and a Hoffleit Assistantship was established at the Mitchell observatory to honor her work.