Robert Wilson (astronomer)

Sir Robert Wilson, CBE (* April 16, 1927; † 2 September 2002) was a British astronomer.

Life

He studied physics at King's College, Durham, and received his PhD in Edinburgh, where he worked at the Royal Observatory. He was one of the pioneers who helped to develop the modern telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope. In 1959, Wilson joined the Plasma Spectroscopy Group at Harwell and later became head of the Plasma Spectroscopy Group at Culham, where he conducted a program of observations of UV spectra. With telescopes on rockets and satellites, it was possible to avoid the absorption of UV light by the atmosphere of the earth and to gain a great deal of information about the hot plasmas especially in the chromosphere and corona of the sun.

Wilson became involved in the European Space Research Organisation with the first astronomy satellite TD -1A mission and was considered the "father" of the International Ultraviolet Explorer ( IUE ) satellite. 1972 resigned as director of the Science Research Council of Astrophysics Research Unit at Culham down and became a professor of astronomy at University College London. He was a lecturer in 1985 for Darwin at the Royal Astronomical Society and was created a Knight Bachelor in 1989 appointed.