PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION

"The Royal Astronomical Society, founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science." Total membership, 3500 fellows.

• Chapman Medal
• Royal Astronomical Society Gold Medal

Official Website:
http://www.ras.org.uk/

Location:
London, England

Founding Date:
1820

Name	Occupation	Birth	Death	Known for
John Couch Adams	Astronomer	5-Jun-1819	21-Jan-1892	Discovered planet Neptune
Walter S. Adams	Astronomer	20-Dec-1876	11-May-1956	Long-time director of Mt. Wilson Observatory
George Biddell Airy	Astronomer	27-Jul-1801	2-Jan-1892	British Astronomer Royal
Walter Baade	Astronomer	24-Mar-1893	25-Jun-1960	German-American observational astronomer
Charles Babbage	Mathematician	26-Dec-1791	18-Oct-1871	Inventor of the Difference Engine
Harold D. Babcock	Astronomer	24-Jan-1882	8-Apr-1968	Solar radiation
Alexander Dallas Bache	Physicist	19-Jul-1806	17-Feb-1867	First President, National Academy of Sciences
Francis Baily	Astronomer	28-Apr-1774	30-Aug-1844	First to observe Baily's Beads
Alec Boksenberg	Astronomer	18-Mar-1936		Image Photon Counting System
John G. Bolton	Astronomer	5-Jun-1922	6-Jul-1993	First Director of Parkes Observatory
Steve Bourne	Computer Programmer	?		/bin/sh
Dirk Brouwer	Astronomer	1-Sep-1902	31-Jan-1966	Celestial mechanics
Ernest W. Brown	Astronomer	29-Nov-1866	22-Jul-1938	Tables of the Motion of the Moon
Jocelyn Bell Burnell	Astronomer	15-Jul-1943		Co-Discoverer of pulsars
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar	Astronomer	19-Oct-1910	21-Aug-1995	Evolutionary stages of stars
Sydney Chapman	Mathematician	29-Jan-1888	16-Jun-1970	Geomagnetism
Arthur C. Clarke	Novelist	16-Dec-1917	19-Mar-2008	2001: A Space Odyssey
Thomas George Cowling	Mathematician	17-Jun-1906	16-Jun-1990	Cowling model
George Darwin	Astronomer	9-Jul-1845	7-Dec-1912	Evolution of the Sun-Earth-Moon system
Augustus De Morgan	Mathematician	27-Jun-1806	18-Mar-1871	De Morgan's Laws
Henri Alexandre Deslandres	Astronomer	24-Jul-1853	15-Jan-1948	Spectroheliograph
Frank W. Dyson	Astronomer	8-Jan-1868	25-May-1939	Six pips on the BBC
Arthur Eddington	Astronomer	28-Dec-1882	22-Nov-1944	Eddington luminosity
George Everest	Explorer	4-Jul-1790	1-Dec-1866	Namesake of Mt. Everest
Alfred Fowler	Astronomer	22-Mar-1868	24-Jun-1940	Celestial spectroscopy
William A. Fowler	Astronomer	9-Aug-1911	14-Mar-1995	Element generation within stars
Riccardo Giacconi	Astronomer	6-Oct-1931		Discovered cosmic X-ray sources
Robert R. Gilruth	Engineer	18-Oct-1913	17-Aug-2000	NASA scientist
Jesse L. Greenstein	Astronomer	15-Oct-1909	21-Oct-2002	Co-Discoverer of quasars
Stephen Groombridge	Astronomer	7-Jan-1755	30-Mar-1832	A Catalogue of Circumpolar Stars
Otto Heckmann	Astronomer	23-Jun-1901	13-May-1983	Investigated cosmic expansion
Louis Henyey	Astronomer	3-Feb-1910	18-Feb-1970	Henyey method
John Herschel	Astronomer	7-Mar-1792	11-May-1871	Discovered many moons of Saturn
Ejnar Hertzsprung	Astronomer	8-Oct-1873	21-Oct-1967	Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
Raymond Hide	Physicist	17-May-1929		Earth's rotation
George W. Hill	Astronomer	3-Mar-1838	16-Apr-1914	A New Theorie of Jupiter and Saturn
Fred Hoyle	Astronomer	24-Jun-1915	20-Aug-2001	Opposed the Big Bang but named it
Edwin Hubble	Astronomer	20-Nov-1889	28-Sep-1953	Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble's Law
George Isaak	Astronomer	7-Mar-1933	5-Jun-2005	Resonant scattering spectroscopy
James H. Jeans	Astronomer	11-Sep-1877	16-Sep-1946	Continuous creation theory
James E. Keeler	Astronomer	10-Sep-1857	12-Aug-1900	Composition of Saturn's rings
Armin O. Leuschner	Astronomer	16-Jan-1868	22-Apr-1953	Astronomer at Berkeley
Bertil Lindblad	Astronomer	26-Nov-1895	25-Jun-1965	Spiral structure of the galaxy
Alfred Lee Loomis	Physicist	4-Nov-1887	1-Aug-1975	Millionaire scientist
Bernard Lovell	Astronomer	31-Aug-1913	6-Aug-2012	Radio astronomer at Jodrell Bank
Donald Lynden-Bell	Astronomer	5-Apr-1935		Astrophysicist at Cambridge
Paul W. Merrill	Astronomer	15-Aug-1887	19-Jul-1961	S-process of nucleosynthesis
Albert A. Michelson	Physicist	19-Dec-1852	9-May-1931	Measured the speed of light
E. Arthur Milne	Mathematician	14-Feb-1896	21-Sep-1950	Kinematic relativity
Rudolph Minkowski	Astronomer	28-May-1895	4-Jan-1976	Galaxies in collision
Marcel Minnaert	Astronomer	12-Feb-1893	26-Oct-1970	Solar spectrophotometry
Charlotte E. Moore	Astronomer	24-Sep-1898	3-Mar-1990	Technetium in the Sun
Gerry Neugebauer	Astronomer	3-Sep-1932		Infrared astronomy
Simon Newcomb	Astronomer	12-Mar-1835	11-Jul-1909	Nautical Almanac
Ernst J. Öpik	Astronomer	23-Oct-1893	10-Sep-1985	Andromeda Nebula
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin	Astronomer	10-May-1900	7-Dec-1979	Hydrogen in the Sun
Benjamin Peirce	Mathematician	4-Apr-1809	10-Jun-1880	Idempotent and nilpotent
Jerry Pournelle	Author	7-Aug-1933		Sci-Fi collaborator with Larry Niven
Henry Norris Russell	Astronomer	25-Oct-1877	18-Feb-1957	Giant stars and dwarfs
Wallace Sargent	Astronomer	15-Feb-1935	29-Oct-2012	Astrophysicist at CalTech
Karl Schwarzschild	Astronomer	9-Oct-1873	11-May-1916	Black holes, Schwarzschild radius
Frederick Hanley Seares	Astronomer	17-May-1873	20-Jul-1964	Astronomer at Mt. Wilson Observatory
Michael Seaton	Astronomer	16-Jun-1923	29-May-2007	Opacity Project
Iosif S. Shklovskii	Astronomer	1-Jul-1916	3-Mar-1985	Synchrotron radiation of the Crab Nebula
Harold Spencer Jones	Astronomer	29-Mar-1890	3-Nov-1960	10th Royal Astronomer of England
Lyman Spitzer, Jr.	Astronomer	26-Jun-1914	31-Mar-1997	Father of space telescopes
Ambrose Swasey	Business	19-Dec-1846	15-Jun-1937	Warner and Swasey Company and Observatory
Edward Troughton	Inventor	Oct-1753	12-Jun-1835	Early scientific instruments
Herbert Hall Turner	Astronomer	13-Aug-1861	20-Aug-1930	Stellar positions
Harold C. Urey	Chemist	29-Apr-1893	5-Jan-1981	Discovered Deuterium

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