Frank Watson Dyson
Sir Frank Dyson FRSE | |
---|---|
Born | Measham, Leicestershire, England | 8 January 1868
Died | At sea | 25 May 1939 (aged 71)
Alma mater | Trinity College, Cambridge |
Known for | Astronomer Royal |
Awards | Royal Medal (1921) |
Signature | |
Sir Frank Watson Dyson,
Biography
Dyson was born in
In 1894 he joined the
Dyson was noted for his study of
Dyson died on board a ship while travelling from Australia to England in 1939, and was buried at sea.[6]
Honours and awards
- Fellow of the Royal Society – 1901[1]
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh – 1906
- President, Royal Astronomical Society – 1911–1913
- Vice-president, Royal Society – 1913–1915
- Knighted – 1915
- President, British Astronomical Association, 1916–1918
- Royal Medal of the Royal Society – 1921
- Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific – 1922
- Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society – 1925
- Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire – 1926
- Gold medal of British Horological Institute – 1928
- President of the International Astronomical Union – 1928–1932
- Between 1894–1906, Dyson lived at 6 Vanbrugh Hill, Blackheath, London SE3, in a house now marked by a blue plaque.
- The crater Dyson on the Moon is named after him, as is the asteroid 1241 Dysona.
Family
In 1894 he married Caroline Bisset Best (d.1937), the daughter of Palemon Best, with whom he had two sons and six daughters.
Frank Dyson and Freeman Dyson
Although Frank Dyson and theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson were not known to be related, their fathers Rev Watson Dyson and George Dyson both hailed from West Yorkshire where the surname originates and is most densely clustered.[13] Freeman Dyson credited Sir Frank with sparking his interest in astronomy: because they shared the same last name, Sir Frank's achievements were discussed by Freeman Dyson's family when he was a young boy.[citation needed] Inspired, Dyson's first attempt at writing was a 1931 piece of juvenilia entitled "Sir Phillip Robert's Erolunar Collision" – Sir Philip being a thinly disguised version of Sir Frank.
In popular media
Actor
Selected writings
- Astronomy, Frank Dyson, London, Dent, 1910
See also
References
- ^ S2CID 161595112.
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
- ^ "Frank Watson Dyson 1868-1939". 2008.
- ^ "Dyson, Frank Watson (DY886FW)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- .
- ^ Bibcode:1939Obs....62..179S.
- doi:10.1086/125099.
- ^ Wilson, Margaret (1951). Ninth Astronomer Royal: The Life of Frank Watson Dyson. Cambridge, England: W. Heffer & Sons Ltd.
- Bibcode:1894JBAA....4..263.Retrieved 12 June 2021.
- .
- Bibcode:1919Obs....42..389.
- .
- ^ Poole, Oliver (9 June 2001). "Why the Dysons keep faith in their genes".
- ^ "Longitude © (1999)". Retrieved 22 June 2021.
External links
- Online catalogue of Dyson's working papers (part of the Royal Greenwich Observatory Archives held at Cambridge University Library)
- Bruce Medal page
- Awarding of Bruce Medal: PASP 34 (1922) 2
- Awarding of RAS gold medal: MNRAS 85 (1925) 672
- Astronomische Nachrichten 268 (1939) 395/396 (one line)
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 100 (1940) 238
- The Observatory 62 (1939) 179
- Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific 51 (1939) 336