Gerald Kron

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Gerald Kron
Born(1913-04-06)April 6, 1913
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of California
Known forphotometry
discovery of starspots
Scientific career
Fieldsastronomy
InstitutionsMIT Radiation Laboratory
Naval Ordnance Test Station
Lick Observatory
United States Naval Observatory
Australian National University
Doctoral advisorJoel Stebbins

Gerald Kron (April 6, 1913 – April 9, 2012) was an American astronomer who was one of the pioneers of high-precision

stellar flare
.

A graduate of the

University of California at Berkeley
, where he received his doctorate in astronomy in 1938.

During

microwave radar. He later became the head of the Special Devices Group at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at Inyokern, California, where he conducted studies on solid fuel rockets, and developed radio transponders for the Manhattan Project's Project Camel
.

After the war Kron returned to the

eclipsing binaries. In 1965, Kron became director of the United States Naval Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, and he was a regular visitor to the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory
.

Early life

Gerald Edward Kron was born in

eclipsing binary.[3][5]

In 1935, Kron travelled to California with Stebbins and

University of California at Berkeley,[3] where he received his doctorate in astronomy in 1938,[2] with a thesis on the photometric elements of eclipsing binaries.[4][6] He then worked in the Lick Observatory as a research assistant.[2]

World War II

In May 1940 Kron joined the

microwave radar.[3] He would later use devices and equipment that he became familiar with at the Radiation Laboratory such as the RCA IP21 photomultiplier and Direct-coupled amplifiers in looking at the stars.[4] Later in World War II he became head of the Special Devices Group at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at Inyokern, California, where he conducted studies on solid fuel rockets.[2]

He also participated in the

Wendover Army Air Fields.[3] When the war ended, he "liberated" some equipment from NOTS before it could be destroyed.[4]

Later life

Eclipsing binary. Algol B orbits Algol A.

After the war Kron returned to the Lick Observatory, where he was one of the designers and creators of the

Radcliff College student, at a picnic at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. After the war, she became an assistant at Lick Observatory.[3] He married her on 22 April 1946.[2] She continued publishing papers under her maiden name.[3]

The two worked together, looking at eclipsing binaries. At one point they found an irregularity, which they attributed to an area of colder temperature, a

stellar flare.[4][8]

In 1965, Kron became director of the

M-type dwarf stars in the southern sky. He was senior research fellow at the Australian National University in Canberra from 1974 to 1976. He retired in 1985 to live in Honolulu, but moved to Sedona, Arizona, in 1995.[2][4]

Kron served for a time as President of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the International Astronomical Union's Commission on Instrumentation. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.[2]

Kron published over 130 scientific papers, many of them described the method accurately measure the light of stars and globular clusters. He pioneered the use of

Milky Way Galaxy.[2]

He died on 12 April 2012. His wife Katherine and son Donald predeceased him. He was survived by his brother Robert and his remaining four children, Richard, Jenny, Virginia and Charles.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ "Gerald E. Kron (1913–2012)". American Astronomical Society. Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Gerald E. Kron Obituary". Retrieved 17 August 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Oral History Transcript — Dr. Gerald Kron". Niels Bohr Library and Archives. Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  4. ^
    ISSN 0886-6961
    . Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  5. ISSN 1538-4357
    . Retrieved 18 August 2013.
  6. ISSN 0075-9317
    .
  7. ^ Gerrard-Gough & Christman 1978, p. 218.
  8. Bibcode:2001IAPPP..84...10H
    .

References
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