Michael Rowan-Robinson

Geoffrey Michael Rowan -Robinson ( born July 9, 1942) is a British astronomer and astrophysicist (Infrared Astronomy ).

Rowan -Robinson studied at Pembroke College, Cambridge University with a bachelor 's degree in 1963 and at the Royal Holloway College, London University with a Master 's degree in astrophysics and geology in 1966 and the PhD ( astrophysics and geology) in 1969. He was from 1969 Lecturer, 1978 Reader and from 1987 Professor of Astrophysics at Queen Mary College, London University and then headed 1993-2007 astrophysics group at Imperial College London ( Blackett Laboratory).

1969, 1971 and 1976 he was a visiting scholar at the University of Bologna and 1978/79 at the University of California, Berkeley. Rowan -Robinson focuses on extragalactic astronomy in the far infrared and sub-millimeter wavelength range. He is the author of several popular science books and came into England also frequently on radio and television.

He was involved in research at the Infrared Space Observatory ( ISO), Spitzer Space Telescope involved ( an infrared telescope ) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope ( sub- mm on Mauna Kea, SCUBA Survey), the Herschel Space Telescope ( SPIRE ), the Planck Space Telescope ( HFI ) and since 1977 the Infrared Astronomical Satellite ( IRAS, launched in 1983 ). At ISO 1993-1996 he was a member of the Time Allocation Commission (Time Allocation Committee ) and from 1996 to 2000, scientists at the photometer and 1995-2004 senior scientist of the European Large Area ISO Survey ( ELAIS ). 1976 to 1979 he was on the committee cosmology of the International Astronomical Union.

He was in the committees of the Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency. (1985 to 1988 as a member of the Astronomy Working Group, 1993 to 1996 time allocation committee for ISO) On the British side, he was in the time allocation committee of the Isaac Newton Telescope at Roque- de-los Muchachos Observatory.

The asteroid 4599 Rowan is named after him.

2006 to 2008 he was president of the Royal Astronomical Society, of which he is a Fellow. In 2008 he received the first Hoyle Medal of the Institute of Physics. In 1981 he was Gresham Professor of Astronomy, connected by public lectures at Gresham College. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics ( IOP).

He has been married since 1978 and has one daughter and two stepsons. As hobbies he gives to poetry, politics, theater, music and golf, and describes himself as an atheist. He lives in Southwold in Suffolk.

Writings

  • Cosmic landscape: voyages back along the photon 's track, Oxford University Press 1979
  • The cosmological distance ladder: distance and time in the Universe, Freeman, San Francisco, 1985
  • Our universe: an armchair guide, Freeman 1990
  • Universe, Longman 1990
  • Ripples in the cosmos: a view behind the scenes of the new cosmology, WH Freeman Spectrum, 1993
  • The nine numbers of the cosmos, Oxford University Press 2001
  • Cosmology, Oxford University Press 2004 ( first Clarendon Press 1977)
  • Fire and Ice: the nuclear winter, Longman 1985
  • Night vision: exploring the infrared universe, Cambridge University Press 2013
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