Historical & 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 ©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2023.Thisbookisanopenaccesspublication. OpenAccessThisbookislicensedunderthetermsoftheCreativeCommonsAttribution4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproductionin any mediumor format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the originalauthor(s)andthesource,providealinktotheCreativeCommonslicenseandindicateifchanges weremade. Theimagesorotherthirdpartymaterialinthisbookareincludedinthebook’sCreativeCommonslicense, unlessindicatedotherwiseinacreditlinetothematerial.Ifmaterialisnotincludedinthebook’sCreative Commonslicenseandyourintendeduseisnotpermittedbystatutoryregulationorexceedsthepermitted use,youwillneedtoobtainpermissiondirectlyfromthecopyrightholder. Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthispublication doesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesareexemptfromtherelevant protectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse. Thepublisher,theauthors,andtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformationinthisbook arebelievedtobetrueandaccurateatthedateofpublication.Neitherthepublishernortheauthorsorthe editorsgiveawarranty,expressedorimplied,withrespecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforany errorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictional claimsinpublishedmapsandinstitutionalaffiliations. Coverfigure:FritzGorophotoofPawsey“adjusting”the21cmPottsHillgratingarrayattheedgeofthe PottsHillreservoirinMarch1951.Credit:GettyImages,FritzGoro,TheLifePictureCollection,licensed byGettyNovember2021/LicenceorganisedbyShutterstock,Inc.,NewYork,NY(5Nov2021)Original, PremiumEditorialAllMediaCover ThisSpringerimprintispublishedbytheregisteredcompanySpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland 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