juliensimon/astronomer-database

---
license: cc0-1.0
pretty_name: "Astronomer Database"
language:
- en
description: >-
A comprehensive database of astronomers throughout history, sourced from Wikidata.
11,613 astronomers from 266 countries with fields of work,
awards, and employer history.
size_categories:
- 10K<n<100K
task_categories:
- tabular-classification
tags:
- space
- astronomy
- astronomers
- wikidata
- open-data
- tabular-data
- parquet
configs:
- config_name: default
default: true
data_files:
- split: train
path: data/astronomers.parquet
---

# Astronomer Database

*Part of the [Astronomy Datasets](https://huggingface.co/collections/juliensimon/astronomy-datasets-69c24caf2f17e36128946743) collection on Hugging Face.*

Complete database of astronomers throughout history — **11,613** individuals
from **266** countries, sourced from [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/).

## Dataset description

From ancient stargazers to modern astrophysicists, this dataset captures the lives and
work of astronomers across the ages. It spans from historical figures like Galileo Galilei
and Johannes Kepler to contemporary researchers studying gravitational waves, exoplanets,
and the large-scale structure of the universe.

The dataset includes birth/death dates, sex, nationality, employer history (universities,
observatories, research institutions), awards received (Nobel Prize, etc.), and fields
of work (cosmology, planetary science, stellar physics, etc.). This enables historical
analysis of the astronomy profession, diversity-in-STEM research, and bibliometric studies
of scientific communities.

Sourced from Wikidata's structured knowledge base (property P106=Q11063 for
occupation: astronomer), which is maintained by the Wikipedia/Wikidata community
and updated continuously.

## Schema

| Column | Type | Description |
|--------|------|-------------|
| `wikidata_id` | string | Wikidata entity ID (e.g. Q935) |
| `name` | string | Full name |
| `birth_date` | string | Date of birth (YYYY-MM-DD) |
| `death_date` | string | Date of death if deceased |
| `sex` | string | Sex (male/female) |
| `nationality` | string | Nationality |
| `employers` | string | Employers, semicolon-separated (universities, observatories, institutes) |
| `awards` | string | Awards received, semicolon-separated |
| `fields_of_work` | string | Fields of work, semicolon-separated (e.g. astrophysics, cosmology) |
| `birth_year` | int | Year of birth (derived) |

## Quick stats

- **11,613** astronomers from **266** countries
- **9,685** male, **1,394** female
- **3,025** with recorded fields of work
- **2,466** with recorded awards
- Top nationalities: United States (1,563), Germany (564), France (556), United Kingdom (360), Italy (280)

## Usage

```python
from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/astronomer-database", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Astronomers by nationality
print(df["nationality"].value_counts().head(10))

# Female astronomers
female = df[df["sex"] == "female"]
print(f"{len(female):,} female astronomers")

# Astronomers by field
cosmologists = df[df["fields_of_work"].str.contains("cosmology", case=False, na=False)]
print(f"{len(cosmologists):,} cosmologists")

# Award winners
nobel = df[df["awards"].str.contains("Nobel", na=False)]
print(f"{len(nobel):,} Nobel Prize recipients")

# University affiliation
cambridge = df[df["employers"].str.contains("Cambridge", na=False)]
print(f"{len(cambridge):,} Cambridge-affiliated astronomers")
```

## Data source

[Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/) SPARQL endpoint. Astronomers identified via
property P106 (occupation) = Q11063 (astronomer). Data is community-curated and
updated continuously by Wikipedia editors worldwide.

## Update schedule

Quarterly (January, April, July, October). Re-run manually at any time to pick up new entries.

## Related datasets

- [astronaut-database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/astronaut-database) — Every person who has traveled to space
- [observatory-database](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/observatory-database) — Astronomical observatories worldwide

## Pipeline

Source code: [juliensimon/space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets)

## Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the [dataset page](https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/astronomer-database) and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the [space-datasets](https://github.com/juliensimon/space-datasets) repo.

## Citation

```bibtex
@dataset{astronomer_database,
author = {Simon, Julien},
title = {Astronomer Database},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Hugging Face},
url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/astronomer-database},
note = {Sourced from Wikidata (CC0)}
}
```

## License

[CC0-1.0](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) (Wikidata content is public domain)