1867-1934 Our Notable Human for April 2004 Submitted by Chloe
Our Notable Human for March 2004
Steven Beckwith is currently the Director of the Space Telescope Science Institute and a professor of physics and astronomy at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. His principal research interests are the formation and early evolution of planets, including those outside the Solar System and the birth of galaxies in the early universe.
His principal research interests are the formation and early evolution of planets including those outside the Solar System, and the birth of galaxies in the early universe. He has published over 100 research articles, and lectures extensively to the general public and professional audiences. He has won several awards in the United States and Europe for his research. He also contributes his time to advisory committees on research policy. He was the chairman of the Science and Technical Committee of the European Southern Observatory for 3 years, he chaired the European panel to set priorities for space research for all wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the radio spectrum (Horizon 2000+), and he was recently the chairman of the panel to set priorities in ultraviolet through radio space research for the first decade of the new millennium as part of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee of the National Research Council of the United States.
Steven Beckwith lives with his wife, Susan McCormick, his daughter, Martha, and son, Thomas, in Ruxton, Maryland, where he enjoys fishing, skiing, bicycle excursions, and camping with his family.
Our Notable Human for February 2004 Adams, John Couch, 1819–92, English astronomer, grad. St. John's College, Cambridge, 1843. By mathematical calculation based on irregularities in the motion of Uranus, he predicted the position of the then unknown planet Neptune. Because of delay in England in making a telescopic search for the planet, the credit for the discovery went to a Frenchman, Leverrier. In 1858, Adams became professor of mathematics at St. Andrews Univ., but he soon returned to Cambridge, to occupy the Lowndean chair of astronomy and geometry until his death. From 1861 he was also director of the university observatory, preferring this post to that of astronomer royal, which was offered to him in 1881. He made valuable studies of the moon's motions, of the Leonids in the great meteor shower of 1866, and of terrestrial magnetism. His collected papers, edited by his brother, were published (1896–1900) at Cambridge. Notable Human for January 2004 Born: 10/17/1956 Birthplace: Decatur, Ala.
Astronaut Mae Jemison became the first African-American woman to enter space when she served on the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavor in September 1992. Jemison's life, however, is also full of terrestrial accomplishments. A high school graduate at the age of 16, she attended Stanford University on a scholarship, graduating with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and having fulfilled the requirements for an A.B. in African and Afro-American Studies. After graduating from medical school (Cornell University, 1981), Jemison joined the Peace Corps, serving as its area medical officer from 1983 to 1985 in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia. After serving in NASA from 1987 to 1993, Jemison founded The Jemison Group, Inc., which developed ALAFIYA, a satellite-based telecommunications systems intended to improve health care delivery in developing nations. She also was a professor in the Environmental Studies Program at Dartmouth College, where she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.
Our Notable Human for December
Abbot, Charles Greeley, 1872–1973, American astrophysicist, b. Wilton, N.H. He was acting director in 1896 and director in 1907 of the astrophysical observatory of the Smithsonian Institution; he was secretary of the institution from 1928 to 1944, when he became a research associate. Many of his research studies were initiated by S. P. Langley, his predecessor. He completed the mapping of the infrared solar spectrum and carried out systematic studies of variation in solar radiation, its relation to the sunspot cycle, and its effect on weather variation. He also studied the nature of atmospheric transmission and absorption. Abbot perfected various standardized instruments now widely used for measuring the sun's heat, and he invented devices utilizing solar energy.
Our Notable Human for November Pronounced: [yOOdok'sus, nI'dus]
Eudoxus of Cnidus , 408?–355? B.C., Greek astronomer, mathematician, and physician. From the accounts of various ancient writers, he appears to have studied with Plato in Athens, spent some time in Heliopolis, Egypt, founded a school in Cyzicus, and spent his later years in Cnidus, where he had an observatory. It is claimed that he calculated the length of the solar year, indicating a calendar reform like that made later by Julius Caesar, and that he was the discoverer of some parts of geometry included in the work of Euclid. He was the first Greek astronomer to explain the movements of the planets in a scientific manner. His system involved a number of concentric spheres supporting the planets in their paths. Some scientists still held this belief at the time of Copernicus.
Our Notable Human for October
Asaph Hall is remembered for his discovery of the two Martian moons in 1877 while he worked at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, but his observing career actually started at the Harvard College Observatory. With the coming close opposition of Mars later this year observers will no doubt attempt to catch a glimpse of these moons he discovered.
Asaph Hall was a school teacher in northern Ohio in 1856-1857 when he decided to take up the study of astronomy. He corresponded with William Bond, first director of the Harvard College Observatory, who offered him a position as an assistant at the observatory with a small salary. Hall and his wife arrived in Cambridge in August 1857, where they had a kind reception from William Bond. At the time George Phillips Bond was away on a trip in New Hampshire. Hall began his work under the guidance of William Bond and made good progress, as William Bond was very kind and pleasant to work for. He worked hard, and after five or six weeks George Bond returned and was a little surprised to find an assistant doing so much work. When George Bond talked to Asaph Hall he found out that he had a wife, twenty-five dollars in cash, and a salary of three dollars a week. George Bond suggested that he leave astronomy, as he felt they would starve, but Hall laughed and said he and his wife had made their minds and that they were sure they would make it. George Bond was satisfied with this.
Our Notable Human for September
Mitchell, Maria, 1818–89, American astronomer and educator, b. Nantucket, Mass. Mitchell taught school in Nantucket, and later became a librarian.
On Oct. 1, 1847, Mitchell discovered a comet (1847 VI) not far from Polaris. She was the first woman to be elected (1848) to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1857 a group of Boston area women presented her with a 5-in. Alvan Clark refractor, with which she expanded her studies of sunspots, planets, and nebulae. By taking daily photographs of the sun, she made many discoveries about the nature of sunspots. In 1865 Mitchell became professor of astronomy at Vassar College and taught several distinguished women astronomers.
After her death her students continued to visit her birthplace in Nantucket; it is preserved as the Mitchell House. The Maria Mitchell Observatory was built next door, and in 1912 Harvard established a research program there. In 1913 a 7.5-in. (19.1 cm) photographic refractor was added. The Observatory has an archive of over 8,000 photographs of variable star fields, and offers a summer program for young people about to enter college.
Our Notable Human for Auugust
Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley, 1882–1944, British astronomer and physicist. He was chief assistant (1906–13) at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and was from 1913 Plumian professor of astronomy at Cambridge, where he was director of the observatory from 1914. Eddington was one of the first physicists to grasp the theory of relativity, of which he became a leading exponent. He organized the expedition to view a total solar eclipse in 1919; his observations of bright objects near the sun confirmed the prediction of general relativity that light rays are bent when subjected to a strong gravitational field. He made important contributions to the study of the evolution, motion, and internal constitution of stars. His theory that stars shine from the energy of nuclear reactions is considered the start of modern astrophysics. One of the foremost contemporary expositors of scientific subjects, he was also concerned with the relation of physics to philosophy. He was knighted in 1930. His writings include Mathematical Theory of Relativity (1923), The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1926) (his most famous book), and Stars and Atoms (1928).
Our Notable Human for July
1811–99, This German scientist was educated at the Univ. of Göttingen where he received his doctorate in 1830. He served on the faculties of several universities and was at Heidelberg from 1852 to 1889. His first important contribution to chemistry came with his investigation of certain organic compounds of arsenic, in the process of which he discovered that ferric oxide could be used as an antidote to arsenic poisoning. From his studies of the gaseous products of blast furnaces he evolved a method of gas analysis, presented in his book Gasometrische Methoden (1857). With Kirchhoff at Heidelberg he discovered by spectroscopy the elements cesium and rubidium. Bunsen wrote many articles and collaborated with Kirchhoff on Chemische Analyse durch Spektralbeobachtungen (1860). His important contributions to petrology and chemicogeology include the explanation of geyser action. He invented and improved various kinds of laboratory equipment, including the Bunsen cell, the Bunsen photometer, and the Bunsen burner.
Our Notable Human for June Cannon, Annie Jump, 1863–1941, American astronomer, b. Dover, Del. In 1897 she became an assistant in the Harvard College Observatory, where (1911–38) she was astronomer and curator of astronomical photographs. Recognizing that spectra of many stars had been photographed in the second half of the 19th cent., Cannon classified more than 500,000 stars, in the process publishing many papers on the subject. One of the most significant achievements in 20th-century astronomy and the basis for contemporary theoretical understanding of stellar evolution, the catalog, named after its patron Henry Draper, is still in use. In the course of her photographic work she discovered 300 variable stars, 5 novas, 1 spectroscopic binary, and many stars with bright lines or variable spectra. In 1896 she discovered SS Cygni, a “dwarf nova” that repeats its outbursts about every 60 days. She made a bibliography of variable stars that includes about 200,000 references. Each year the American Association of University Women presents the Annie J. Cannon Award for distinguished contributions to astronomy.
Our Notable Human for May 2003
Aristarchus of Samos:
Inventor of the World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee conceived of and developed the world wide web with help from Robert Cailliau at CERN.
Tim Berners-Lee's mother and father were both mathematicians who were part of the team that programmed Manchester University's Mark I, the world's first commercial, stored program computer, sold by Feranti Ltd. One day when he was in high school Berners-Lee found his dad writing a speech on computers for Basil de Ferranti. Father and son talked about how the human brain has a unique advantage over computers, since it can connect concepts that aren't already associated. For example, if you are walking and see a nice tree, you might think about how cool the park is under the trees, and then think of your backyard, and then decide to plant a tree for shade behind your house. Young Berners-Lee was left with a powerful impression of the potential for computers to be able to link any two pieces of previously unrelated information.
In 1980 Mr. Berners-Lee landed a temporary contract job as a software consultant at CERN ( the famous European Particle physics Laboratory in Geneva). He wrote a program, called Enquire, which he called a "memory substitute," for his personal use to help him remember connections between various people and projects at the lab.
He envisioned a global information space where information stored on computers everywhere was linked and available to anyone anywhere. There were two technologies already developed that would allow his vision to become reality.
In 1945, Vannevar Bush wrote an article entitled, "As We May Think," in which he described a theoretical system for storing information based on associations.
The other technology was the Internet—a computer network of networks. The Internet is a very general infrastructure that allows computers to link together . It uses standardized protocols (TCP/IP) which let computers of different types using different software communicate. Hypertext would allow any document in the information space to be linked to any other document. The Internet would allow those documents to be transmitted.
In 1989, Berners-Lee submitted a proposal at CERN to develop an information system that would create a web of information. Initially, his proposal received no reply, but he began working on his idea anyway. In 1990, he wrote the Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP)—the language computers would use to communicate hypertext documents over the Internet and designed a scheme to give documents addresses on the Internet. Berners-Lee called this address a Universal Resource Identifier (URI). (This is now usually known as a URL—Uniform Resource Locator.) By the end of the year he had also written a client program (browser) to retrieve and view hypertext documents. He called this client "WorldWideWeb."
He also wrote the first web server. A web server is the software that stores web pages on a computer and makes them available to be accessed by others. Berners-Lee set up the first web server known as "info.cern.ch." at CERN.
In 1991, he made his WorldWideWeb browser and web server software available on the Internet and posted notices to several newsgroups including alt.hypertext. The Web began to take off as computer enthusiasts around the world began setting up their own web servers. Often the owners of the new sites would email Berners-Lee and he would link to their sites from the CERN site. His dream of a global information space was finally happening.
Tim is married to Nancy Carlson. They have two children, born 1991 and 1994.
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