CASS News

Grote Reber, pioneer of radio astronomy, passes away at 90

Grote Reber, pioneer of radio astronomy, died in Tasmania on 20 December, two days before his 91st birthday. He was probably the last person to win major prizes in astronomy (Bruce medal, Russell lectureship, Jansky prize) for work performed as an amateur.

Grote Reber's involvement in Australia started in 1955 when he moved to Tasmania to do low frequency radio astronomy. Reber had found that the ionosphere is unusually transparent to long radio waves at places of high magnetic latitude, such as Hobart. His Tasmanian research included mapping the galactic background at 1-2MHz, cosmic ray studies, dating aboriginal sites and botany.

A memorial service is planned for Jan 11 in Bothwell.

Photographs and a more detailed description of Grote Rebers pioneering work may be found at the link below.

Added by Andrew Wright on 2002-12-31