History of Astronomy - Biographies

Contents

• Biography Collections
• Astronomy Collections
• Science Collections
• Biographies in Particular Non-Western Cultures
• General Biographical Collections
• Pages about Individuals

Biography Collections

Astronomy Collections

• Famous People Index @ Astronomy Picture of the Day.
• History of Astronomy: People Index @ Astronomiae Historia / History of Astronomy
• BBC Online - Space - People
  From Anaxagoras to Fritz Zwicky.
• Famous People @ ASTRO 201 General Topics (Cornell Univ. course)
• Astronomy Biographies by Chris Plicht
• Great Astronomers by Robert S. Ball (online text), 1895.
  Ptolemy, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Flamsteed, Halley, Bradley, William Herschel, Laplace, Brinkley, John Herschel, William Parsons, Airy, Hamilton, Le Verrier, Adams.
• Short biographies of The Bruce Medalists awards by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific since 1898; includes many prominent astronomers
• Frank's Website - Astronomy People
• Women Astronomers At the Turn of the Century, 1880 - 1920
• The Woman Astronomer
• History of Astronomical Spectroscopy @ Laser Stars
• Also see the website's references to Scientific Biographies and Quotations
• The Online Planetarium Show: Biographies Biographies of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, and Hubble.
• Great Astronomers @ Sacred Heart Secondary School, Clonakilty, West Cork, Ireland
• Astronomer biographies in Spanish at Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Optica y Electrónica in Mexico.
• Also see Astronomers in their own Words.
• Also see Astronomical Society of the Pacific obituary articles.

Science Collections

• Eric Weisstein's Treasure Trove of Science
• Indexes of Biographies @ History of Mathematics @ Mac Tutor
• A Science Odyssey PBS mini-series. A number of pages about key 20th century discoveries and biographies, as well as some fun presentations.
• TIME Magazine 100- Scientists & Thinkers of the 20th Century March 29, 1999. Includes artilces about Hubble, Einstein, Goddard, Gödel and Fermi.
• Famous Physicists, Astronomers and Engineers some very brief biographies
• Dalibor Paar: Famous Physicists and Astronomers
• Caltech Archives Oral Histories Online. Some are available online.
• See links at Horus-GIG Science & Mathematics, including, Astronomers @ UC Riverside
• Online images of some famous physicists @ Harry N. Nelson's website.
• Men of Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy from Britannica, @ Institute of Physics, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
• Contributions of Women to 20th Century Physics
• SDSC - Women in Science
• 4000 Years of Women in Science
• Women in Science - The British Council UK
• The World Great Mathematicians @ Hong Kong Baptist University, Scientific Computing Laboratory.
• Famous Mathematicians, Central University of Venezuela.
• Mathematicians of the African Diaspora SUNY Buffalo Math Dept.
• Chem 103 Notes - History of Science by Paul Charlesworth. Michigan Tech.
• History of Chemistry.
  Informal biographies. Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in Chemistry.
• Figures In Radiation History. Includes some physicists. Mich. State Univ.
• Vacuum History and Technology McAllister.
  Includes some short biographies of early physicists and chemists.
• The Royal Institution of Great Britain has biographies of some prominent physicists who worked there.
• History of Physics in Prague
  Brahe & Kepler, Doppler, Mach, and Einstein. Inst. of Theoretical Physics in Prague, Relativity Group.
• Electric Universe by CIPCO. There are sections at different grade levels, from 4th grade to high school.
• Nobel Prizes
• Prominent Figures in Physics by students at New Lisbon H.S., Wisconsin.
  The biographies tend to focus on the results of these physicists' work, but not necessarily on how they did it or why.
• Inventive Genius - Biographies of Inventors
  by students at Brisas Elementary School, Chandler, Az. Some pages about Galileo, Newton, Einstein and Fermi.

Biographies in Particular Non-Western Cultures

• Islamic Gateway (UK):
• Muslim Astronomers & Scientists of the Past
• Muslim Scientists and Islamic Civilization 700 - 1500 C.E.
• Muslim astronomers and scientists of old Monzur Ahmed
• Personalities Noble - Glimpses of Renowned Scientists and Thinkers of the Muslim Era
• Also see History of Science - Medieval.
• Chinese Postage Stamp - Some Astronomers of Ancient China

General Biographical Collections

• Distinguished Women of Past and Present
• Women in Astronomy
• SJSU Virtual Museum
• Biography.Com A large collection of short biographies.
• Lucid Café (Category Index)
• National Aviation Hall of Fame- Alphabetical Listing of Enshrinees
  Contains some aviation and space related biographies.

Pages about Individuals

A

• Archimedes
• See Ancient Greek Astronomy.
• Aristarchus
• See Ancient Greek Astronomy.
• Aristotle
• Documents of Astronomical History: excerpts of writings from Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo; @ ASTR 106 astronomy course by Prof. Arnold Lesiker @ St. Cloud State Univ., MN
• Translated writings of Aristotle [ gopher://gopher.lib.ncsu.edu:3001/7?Aristotle ]
• The Internet Classics Archive - On the Heavens by Aristotle @ MIT.
• The Philosophy of Aristotle Helas Online.
• Also see Ancient Greek Astronomy.

B

• E.E. Barnard
• Barnard and the ISM @ Astronomy 208 by Alyssa Goodman, Harvard.
• See the book Interstellar Matters
  by Gerrit L. Verschuur. 1989. Springer-Verlag.
• Jocelyn Bell-Burnell
• Little Green Men, White Dwarfs or Pulsars? by Jocelyn Bell-Burnell, about her discovery of Pulsars in 1967, Cosmic Search Vol. 1, No. 1 - January 1979
• See an online talk by her at The Vega Trust
• Tycho Brahe
• See The Scientific Revolution in Europe.
• Rundetaarn - The Round Tower "The oldest functioning observatory in Europe," in Denmark. Has biographies of some noted astronomers in Denmark, including Tycho Brahe.
• Tycho Brahe, Danish Astronmomer
• Tycho Brahe
• See The Galileo Project.
• TychoBrahe.Com Landskrona Museum (Thank you for the link.)
• The Astronomical Instruments of Tycho Brahe
• A short biography of Tycho Brahe Town of Wittenberg.
  (Also in Dutch, German, Polish and Swedish.)
• The Noble Dane: Images of Tycho Brahe @ Museum of the History of Science @ Oxford, England.
• Smithsonian Instition Libraries Digital Archives
• Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica by Tycho Brahe

C

• Annie Jump Cannon
• Annie Jump Cannon- Theorist of Star Spectra SDSC - Women in Science.
• Jean-Dominique Cassini
• Jean-Dominique Cassini and Christaan Huygens @ the Cassini Mission to Saturn Home Page.
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
• Subramaniam Chandrasekar a short biography by Vivek Penumatcha @ Indian American Scholarship Fund.
• S. Chandrasekhar - The Scientist Who Worked Out How the Stars Find Their Peace by A. N. Maheshwari.
• Chandra - About Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar @ AXAF Chandrasekhar X-Ray Observatory.
• Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar 1910-1995 Astronomy Picture of the Day.
• Nicolaus Copernicus
• See The Scientific Revolution in Europe which includes Pages specifically about Copernicus.

D

• John Dalton
• John Dalton Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in Chemistry.

E

• Albert Einstein
• Albert Einstein: Person of the Century Time Magazine. January 2000.
  Articles by Frederic Golden, Stephen Hawkings, J. Madeleine Nash and Roger Rosenblatt.
• Albert Einstein Online
• NOVA Online/Einstein Revealed
• The Einstein Papers Project Cal Tech.
• Albert Einstein Archives
  Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Einstein Archives Online Hebrew University and Cal Tech.
  First online access to Albert Einstein’s scientific and non-scientific manuscripts held at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
• Also see Relativity on the Specific Topics page.
• See Books on Related Sciences.
• Who Was Albert Einstein? by Jess Brallier. Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker. Grosset & Dunlap. © 2002.
  This is a well written biography for middle school age level. However, the science aspect is mentioned and sometimes described. But it is not really probed or explained.
• Johann Franz Encke
• Johann Franz Encke - The Discovery of the Short Periodic Comets. Jens Dengler. Berlin, Germany.

F

• Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
• Michael Faraday page at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
• Faraday as a discoverer by John Tyndall
• Michael Faraday transcriptions from two interviews with Faraday.
  Woodrow Wilson Leadership Program in Chemistry
• The Chemical History of the Candle
• Joseph Fourier
• Joseph Fourier - Politician & Scientist a biographical paper by David A Keston
• Benjamin Franklin
• The Electric Franklin by Independence Hall, Philadelphia. Includes contemporary accounts of Franklin's experiments with electricity.
• Joseph von Fraunhofer
• Joseph von Fraunhofer and the Fraunhofer Lines he discovered in the solar spectrum, @ Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft Homepage.

G

• Galileo Galilei
• The Galileo Project Homepage @ Rice University
  This includes many background articles about Galileo's period and his contemporaries.
• Check their Galileo Project: Student Work which has some interesting on-line projects.
• KNOWMAGINE Virtual Museum of Science Technology and Culture at Tel Aviv University in Israel. They have an exhibit about the scientific thoughts of Galileo.
• IMSS - History of Science Museum - Multimedia Catalog -- Galileo Galilei
  Exhibits about Galileo and his science, with some background notes. (Florence, Italy).
• See Padua Observatory (Italy): Astronomy for All - Advanced Topics for some pages about Galileo.
• Galileo Galilei The World of Science
• Science and Human Values - Galileo Fred Wilson, RIT.
• The Galileo Affair, a perspective from CICI - Catholic.Net
• Discovery of the Galilean Satellites @ JPL Galileo Probe.
• The Art of Renaissance Science: Galileo & Perspective
• Documents of Astronomical History: excerpts of writings from Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Copernicus, and Galileo; @ ASTR 106 astronomy course by Prof. Arnold Lesiker @ St. Cloud State Univ., MN
• See The Scientific Revolution in Europe.
• Robert Goddard:
• NASA Facts: Robert H. Goddard and The First Liquid Fuel Rocket
• About Goddard Some information about Robert Goddard, @ NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Welcome Page.
• APOD: September 16, 1995 - Rockets and Robert Goddard
• See the Astronautics History Page.
• Jesse L. Greenstein
• Caltech Archives Oral Histories Online - Interview with Jesse L. Greenstein

H

• William Herschell and his family
• The Bath Preservation Trust Web-Site - Herschel Museum. The preserved home of William and Caroline Herschel.
• Enjar Hertzsprung
• Rundetaarn - The Round Tower. Has biographies of some noted astronomers in Denmark, including Hertzsprung.
• Helen Sawyer Hogg
• Helen Sawyer Hogg- A Gift of Stars SDSC - Women in Science.
• Helen Sawyer Hogg University of Toronto Astronomy and Astrophysics Library
• Norman H. Horowitz (biologist)
• Caltech Archives Oral Histories Online - Interview with Norman H. Horowitz
  Dr. Horowitz created one of the biology experiments on board the Viking Mars landers.
• Sir Fred Hoyle
• Sir Fred Hoyle, 1915-2001 IOP Physics Education.
• Christaan Huygens
• Jean-Dominique Cassini and Christaan Huygens @ the Cassini Mission to Saturn Home Page.
• Christiaan Huygens by Mike Sinclair @ Richard Bell's Stargazer Online
• Smithsonian Instition Libraries Digital Archives
• Systema Saturnium by Christiaan Huygens
• Hypatia
• Hypatia of Alexandria
  Radio talk by Dr. Michael Deakin (August 3, 1997) on Australian Broadcasting Corp. program Ockham's Razor.

J

• Karl Jansky
• Early History of Radio Astronomy NRAO
• Karl Jansky and the discovery of cosmic radio waves
• My Brother Karl Jansky and his Discovery of Radio Waves from Beyond Earth Cosmic Search Vol. 1, No. 4 - Fall 1979

K

• Johannes Kepler
• Science and Human Values - Bruno, Brahe and Kepler Fred Wilson, RIT.
• Johannes Kepler: His Life and Times @ NASA Kepler Mission
• Kepler Museum (in German)
• Johannes Kepler by Ralph Aichinger and Tan Ses. Kepler Univ. Linz, Austria.(in German)
• Kepler's House in Linz 1625
• Johannes Kepler Dalibor Paar.
• Johannes Kepler and the New Astronomy by James R. Voelkel. © 1999. Oxford University Press.
  A well written book on a high school level.
• See The Scientific Revolution in Europe.

L

• Antoine de Lavoisier
• Antoine de Lavoisier (1743-1794). Considered the father of modern chemistry. By Friends of Lavoisier in France.
• Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer
• Norman Lockyer Observatory:
• Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer
• Percival Lowell
• MARS by Percival Lowell

M

• Charles Messier
• SEDS Messier Database
• Albert Michelson
• Science in Poland - Albert Michelson Michelson-Interferometer.
• Maria Mitchell
• The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association
• Maria Mitchell Inspires a Generation Astronomy Picture of the Day.
• Maria Mitchell, the Soul of an Astronomer by Beatrice Gormley. © 1995. Wm. B. Erdmans Publishing Co. ISBN 0-8028-5099-5.
  A biography of America's first woman professional astronomer, on teen level. (1818-1889.)
• There is a children's book, Maria's Comet by Deborah Hopkinson.

N

• John Napier
• Undusting Napier's Bones
• Napier's Rods, Abacus and Slide Rule Gerold Beckers.
• Isaac Newton
• Sir Isaac Newton - newton.org.uk
• Newton's life. Includes links to more.
• Isaac Newton Explains the Solar System @ Astronomy Picture of the Day, July 7, 1996
• Isaac Newton Dalibor Paar.
• Isaac Newton by James Gleick. © May, 2003. Pantheon.
  (Publisher's link opens more details about the book, and excerpt.) ISBN 0-375-42233-1.
• A monarch in the age of reason an extensive book review by Freeman Dyson. Australian Financial Review. August 1, 2003. Discusses in more detail some of the related history.
• See The Scientific Revolution in Europe.

O

• Jan Hendrik Oort
•  Jan Hendrik Oort - From Comets To The Universe
• Hans C. Ørsted
• H. C. Ørsted in Danish (@ Danish Met. Inst.)

P

• William Parsons, the 3rd Earl of Rosse.
• The World's (once) Largest Telescope: Lord Rosse and the Birr Castle Telescopes
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: In Her Own Words @ Lake Afton Public Observatory: Women in Astronomy
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin biography @ Century of Women in Physics.
• Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cambridge University Press. © 1996.

R

• Ole Rømer
• Ole Rømer Institute for Physics and Astronomy, of Aarhus University, Denmark.

S

• Carl Sagan
• Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996) Scientific American: Explorations, January 1997.
• Michael Rapp's The Dr. Carl Sagan Honorary Site
• See Astronomers in their Own Words.
• Eugene M. Shoemaker
• Eugene M. Shoemaker by the USGS.
• Mary Somerville
• Mary Fairfax Greig Somerville by MacTutor.
• Mary Somerville by Kathryn A . Neeley. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521626722.
• Lyman Spitzer Jr.
• Lyman Spitzer Jr.: 1914 - 1997 @ SolarNews: April 16 1997

T

• Clyde Tombaugh
• Pluto - The Discovery of Planet X by Brad Mager
• Clyde Tombaugh (1906-1997)
• Clyde Tombaugh, 1906 - 1997 @ Observatorio ARVAL
• Clyde Tombaugh Interview @ Gallery of Achievement.
• The Struggles to find the Ninth Planet JPL
• Also see Planet Pluto.

W

• Alfred Russel Wallace
• The Alfred Russel Wallace Page Charles Smith, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green. Thank you for writing me.
  Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist and younger contemporary of Charles Darwin, who came up with the theory of natural selection at about the same time as Darwin. The website includes several of his papers, including:
• Is Mars Habitable? (1907) A Critical Examination of Professor Lowell's Book "Mars and Its Canals," With an Alternative Explanation by Alfred Russel Wallace
• Man's Place in the Universe, by Alfred Russel Wallace, A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds (1903)

Y

• Charles Yerkes
• Astronomical Figures - Charles Yerkes University of Chicago Magazine, February 1997.