Martin Ryle

Martin Ryle was born on 27 September 1918 in England. In 1946, he and Derek Vonberg published the first interferometric astronomical measurements at radio wavelengths - a method that would remake the field. Ryle developed aperture synthesis and other revolutionary radio telescope systems, using them to locate and image faint radio sources with new precision, observing the most distant galaxies known at the time. He became the first Professor of Radio Astronomy at Cambridge, founded the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, and in 1974 shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Antony Hewish - the first Nobel awarded for astronomical research. He served as the twelfth Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982. In the 1970s he turned most of his attention away from the cosmos to social and political issues he deemed more pressing. He died on 14 October 1984.