Table Of ContentHistorical & Cultural Astronomy
Series Editor: W. Orchiston · M. Rothenberg · C. Cunningham
W. M. Goss
Claire Hooker
Ronald D. Ekers
Joe Pawsey
and the Founding
of Australian
Radio Astronomy
Early Discoveries,
from the Sun to the Cosmos
Historical & Cultural Astronomy
SeriesEditors
WAYNEORCHISTON, Astrophysics Group, University of Southern Queensland,
Toowoomba,QLD,Australia
MARCROTHENBERG,SmithsonianInstitution(retired),Rockville,MD,USA
CLIFFORDCUNNINGHAM,UniversityofSouthernQueensland,Toowoomba,
QLD,Australia
EditorialBoardMembers
JAMESEVANS,UniversityofPugetSound,Tacoma,WA,USA
MILLERGOSS,NationalRadioAstronomyObservatory,Charlottesville,USA
DUANEHAMACHER,MonashUniversity,Melbourne,Australia
JAMESLEQUEUX,ObservatoiredeParis,Paris,France
SIMONMITTON,St.Edmund’sCollegeCambridgeUniversity,Cambridge,UK
CLIVERUGGLES,UniversityofLeicester,Leicester,UK
VIRGINIATRIMBLE,UniversityofCaliforniaIrvine,Irvine,CA,USA
GUDRUNWOLFSCHMIDT,InstituteforHistoryofScienceandTechnology,
UniversityofHamburg,Hamburg,Germany
TRUDYBELL ,Sky&Telescope,Lakewood,OH,USA
DAVIDDEVORKIN,NationalAirandSpaceMuseum,SmithsonianInstitution,
Washington,USA
The Historical & Cultural Astronomy series includes high-level monographs and
edited volumes covering a broad range of subjects in the history of astronomy,
including interdisciplinary contributions from historians, sociologists, horologists,
archaeologists,andotherhumanitiesfields.Theauthorsaredistinguishedspecialists
intheirfieldsofexpertise.Eachtitleiscarefullysupervisedandaimstoprovidean
in-depth understanding by offering detailed research. Rather than focusing on the
scientific findings alone, these volumes explain the context of astronomical and
spacescienceprogressfromthepre-modernworldtothefuture.Theinterdisciplin-
ary Historical & Cultural Astronomy series offers a home for books addressing
astronomicalprogressfromahumanitiesperspective,encompassingtheinfluenceof
religion, politics, social movements, and more on the growth of astronomical
knowledgeoverthecenturies.
TheHistorical&CulturalAstronomySeriesEditorsare:WayneOrchiston,Marc
Rothenberg,andCliffCunningham.
(cid:129) (cid:129)
W. M. Goss Claire Hooker Ronald D. Ekers
Joe Pawsey and the Founding
of Australian Radio
Astronomy
Early Discoveries, from the Sun to the Cosmos
W.M.Goss ClaireHooker
NationalRadioAstronomyObservatory SydneyHealthEthics,Sydney
Socorro,NM,USA SchoolofPublicHealth
Sydney,NSW,Australia
RonaldD.Ekers
AustraliaTelescopeNational
Facility,CSIRO
Epping,NSW,Australia
ThisworkwassupportedbyNationalRadioAstronomyObserv.CSIROATNF.
ISSN2509-310X ISSN2509-3118 (electronic)
Historical&CulturalAstronomy
ISBN978-3-031-07915-3 ISBN978-3-031-07916-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-07916-0
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Coverfigure:FritzGorophotoofPawsey“adjusting”the21cmPottsHillgratingarrayattheedgeofthe
PottsHillreservoirinMarch1951.Credit:GettyImages,FritzGoro,TheLifePictureCollection,licensed
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JoePawseyvisitingtheVermilionRiverObservatory,UniversityofIllinois,August1957.Image
creditCSIRORadioAstronomyImageArchiveB11833-2
For: Hastings and Elizabeth (Liz) Pawsey,
whoinspiredandaccompaniedourinterestin
J.L. Pawsey throughout the last decade
Foreword
Radio astronomy, once a scientific wunderkind, is now almost a century old. It is
hardtoteleportourselvesbackintothemid-twentiethcenturywhenastronomywas
synonymouswith tubesholdingglassmirrorsandlenses.Butintothisworldcame
celestial observations with radio receivers and arrays of oddly shaped antennas,
leading to fundamental contributions to both astronomy and physics. And during
succeedingdecadesobserversexpandedtheirvieweverwider,eventuallyusingall
otherpartsoftheelectromagneticspectrum(gammarays,X-rays,ultraviolet,infra-
red), cosmic ray particles, neutrinos, and, just in recent years, even gravitational
waves.Butitallbeganwithradioastronomy.
Radio astronomy is now old enough to have spawned many studies using tools
suchasintellectualhistory, sociologyofresearch groups,nationalandinstitutional
histories, and interdisciplinary interactions. One important genre, however, has
received little attention—biography. In fact, setting aside autobiographies, there
have been only two substantial biographies of key radio astronomers!1 Yet the
developmentofanysciencecanonlybeweaklyunderstoodwithoutcloseexamina-
tionofthepersonalitiesandmotivationsoftheindividualswho actually didit.For
thestoryofearlyradioastronomy,anyconsiderationofpersonsneedingabiography
easily points to one man, Joseph Lade Pawsey. Thus, it is especially welcome that
Miller Goss, Claire Hooker, and Ron Ekers have devoted more than a decade of
study and collaboration to produce this comprehensive biography of Pawsey, the
mostimportantfigureresponsibleforthephenomenalsuccessandworldleadership
ofearlyAustralianradioastronomy.
We learn of Pawsey’s rural roots in Victoria, Australia, his academic success
culminatinginaPhDinPhysicsfromCambridgeUniversityin1934,hisearlyradio
researchinEngland,andthenhisreturnhomeatthestartofWorldWarIIinorderto
join the newly created Radiophysics Laboratory (RPL) in Sydney, devoted to
top-secret development of radar for myriad uses on the ground, in the air, and at
1(1)Robertson,P.(2017)and(2)GossandMcGee(2009).
ix
x Foreword
sea.Atwar’sendin1945Pawseybecametheleaderofasmallgroupofphysicists
andengineersthatinvestigatedrecentlydiscoveredradiowaveburstsfromtheSun.
Thissoonledtoanimportantnewunderstandingofthesolaratmosphere,aswellas
to development of analysis techniques that have proved fundamental to radio
astronomy ever since. Over the next 15 years as his group grew and matured, it
arguably became the most distinguished Australian research group in the world in
anyareaofscience.AnditsonlypeerinradioastronomywasinEngland.Eventu-
ally,Pawsey’stechnicalguidanceandpersonalmentorshipledtomanyoutstanding
researchers outgrowing RPL and establishing their own groups in universities at
home and abroad.2 For reasons described by the authors in detail, Pawsey himself
also decided at this time to leave RPL in order to lead a new national radio
observatoryintheUSA.Butbeforehecouldbeginin1962hewasdiagnosedwith
abraintumourandsoondiedattheageof54.
While following Pawsey’s life and career, the reader learns not only about his
ownresearch,butalsoaboutothermajordevelopmentsinradioastronomyswirling
aroundhim.Severallongoverseastoursallowedattendanceatconferences,visitsto
major facilities, and consultation with foreign radio researchers. In particular, we
learnofsometimesbitterbattlesatconferencesoverthenatureandnumberofradio
sourcesintheuniverse,thereliabilityofdatagatheredfromdifferentradiotelescope
designs, and the validity of any subsequent cosmological inferences. Ironically,
Pawsey and RPL’s Bernard Mills fought especially with Martin Ryle’s group in
theCavendishLaboratory,Cambridge,preciselywherePawseyhadearnedhisPhD
25yearsearlier.Pawseyalsoco-authoredthedefinitivetextbookofradioastronomy
foritstime(Pawsey&Bracewell,1955,RadioAstronomy).
To produce this volume the authors have scoured the archives of institutions
aroundtheworld,aswellasthoseofPawsey’sfamilyandcolleagues.Theauthors’
variedbackgroundshavemeantthatallaspectsofPawsey’slifehavebeenexhaus-
tively covered. Goss began his deep dive into the history of Australian radio
astronomy with a biography of Ruby Payne-Scott, an important early colleague of
Pawsey’s and the first woman in the world to make radio astronomical measure-
ments.3 Both Goss and Ekers have had distinguished careers in radio astronomy
around the world, as well as having been observatory directors—Ekersin fact was
formerlydirectorofadescendantofRPL,theAustraliaTelescopeNationalFacility.
Hookerisahistorianandsociologistofscienceandmedicinewhoalsostudiedthe
career of Payne-Scott as part of her doctoral dissertation, and since then has
investigatedmanyaspectsofthehistoryofAustralianscienceandmedicine.
Insummary,historiansofastronomyandoftechnologywillwelcomethismuch-
neededbiography.Theywillfindthattheauthorshaveconvincinglymadethecase
2ProminentamongthosewholeftRPLintheperiod1955–1965wereRonBracewell(toStanford
University), Frank Kerr (to University of Maryland), John Bolton (to Caltech for 6 years, then
returning),andBernardMillsandWilburChristiansen(bothtoUniversityofSydney).
3GossandMcGee(2009),UndertheRadar:TheFirstWomaninRadioAstronomy,RubyPayne-
Scott.AlesstechnicalandshorterversionbyGoss(2013)isMakingWaves:TheStoryofRuby
Payne-Scott,AustralianPioneerRadioAstronomer.
Foreword xi
fortheimportance,evencentrality,ofJoePawseyinshapingtheexcitingdevelop-
ment of early radio astronomy, a field that in turn revolutionised astronomy as a
whole.
UniversityofWashington, WoodruffT.SullivanIII
Seattle,WA,USA
