Martin Ryle

About Martin Ryle

Who is it?: Astronomer
Birth Day: September 27, 1918
Birth Place: Brighton, British
Died On: 14 October 1984(1984-10-14) (aged 66)\nCambridge, England
Birth Sign: Libra
Education: Bradfield College
Alma mater: University of Oxford (BA, DPhil)
Known for: Radio astronomy
Spouse(s): Rowena Palmer (m. 1947)
Awards: Hughes Medal (1954) RAS Gold Medal (1964) Henry Draper Medal (1965) Knight Bachelor (1966) Faraday Medal (1971) Royal Medal (1973) Bruce Medal (1974) Nobel Prize in Physics (1974)
Fields: Astronomy
Institutions: University of Cambridge Gresham College
Doctoral advisor: J. A. Ratcliffe
Doctoral students: Malcolm Longair

Martin Ryle Net Worth

Martin Ryle was born on September 27, 1918 in Brighton, British, is Astronomer. Sir Martin Ryle was a British astronomer who was one of the joint winners of Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974. Educated first at Bradfield College, he completed his graduation in physics from Christ Church College under University of Oxford. Later, he did his PhD under the guidance of John Ashworth Ratcliffe. However, before he could do that the World War II broke out and he joined Telecommunication Research Establishment to work on airborne radar system. Very soon he began to lead a group of scientists and those who worked with him remembered him for his extraordinary inventiveness and understanding. After the war, he received Fellowship from Imperial Chemical Industries and joined Ratcliffe at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. Although he started his work on radio waves coming from the sun he soon shifted focus and concentrated on developing revolutionary radio telescope systems. Within a few years, he was first appointed to the post of Lecturer at the Cambridge University and then to the newly created Chair of Radio Astronomy. All along he led research teams from the front and devised increasingly efficient aperture synthesis. With them, he and his team could watch distant galaxies and discovered the first quasar and the first pulsar.
Martin Ryle is a member of Scientists

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Martin Ryle images

Biography/Timeline

1939

Ryle was a new physics graduate and an experienced radio 'ham' in 1939, when the Second World War started. He played an important part in the Allied war effort, working mainly in radar countermeasures. After the war, "He returned to Cambridge with a determination to devote himself to pure science, unalloyed by the taint of war."

1946

The focus of Ryle's early work in Cambridge was on radio waves from the Sun. His interest quickly shifted to other areas, however, and he decided early on that the Cambridge group should develop new observing techniques. As a result, Ryle was the driving force in the creation and improvement of astronomical interferometry and aperture synthesis, which paved the way for massive upgrades in the quality of radio astronomical data. In 1946 Ryle built the first multi-element astronomical radio interferometer.

1948

While serving as university lecturer in physics at Cambridge from 1948 to 1959, Ryle became Director of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in 1957 and professor of radio astronomy in 1959. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1952, was knighted in 1966, and succeeded Sir Richard Woolley as Astronomer Royal from 1972–1982. Ryle and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize awarded in recognition of astronomical research. In 1968 Ryle served as professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London.

1959

Ryle guided the Cambridge radio astronomy group in the production of several important radio source catalogues. One such catalogue, the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) in 1959 helped lead to the discovery of the first quasi-stellar object (quasar).

1970

In the 1970s, Ryle turned the greater part of his attention from astronomy to social and political issues which he considered to be more urgent. With publications from 1976 and continuing, despite illness until he died in 1984, he pursued a passionate and intensive program on the socially responsible use of science and Technology. His main themes were:

1983

In 1983 Ryle responded to a request from the President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for suggestions of topics to be discussed at a meeting on Science and Peace. Ryle's reply was published posthumously in Martin Ryle's Letter. An abridged version appears in New Scientist with the title Martin Ryle's Last Testament. The letter ends with "Our cleverness has grown prodigiously – but not our wisdom."

1984

Ryle was an amateur radio operator, and held the GB-Callsign G3CY. Ryle married Rowena Palmer in 1947. He died on 14 October 1984, in Cambridge. He was celebrated on a first class stamp issued as part of a set of eminent Britons on 8 October 2009.

2013

Ryle was sometimes considered difficult to work with – he often worked in an office at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory to avoid disturbances from other members of the Cavendish Laboratory and to avoid getting into heated arguments, as Ryle had a hot temper. Ryle worried that Cambridge would lose its standing in the radio astronomy community as other radio astronomy groups had much better funding, so he encouraged a certain amount of secrecy about his aperture synthesis methods in order to keep an advantage for the Cambridge group. Ryle had heated arguments with Fred Hoyle of the Institute of Astronomy about Hoyle's Steady State Universe, which restricted collaboration between the Cavendish Radio Astronomy Group and the Institute of Astronomy during the 1960s.