Martin Ryle

Sir Martin Ryle (27 September 1918 – 14 October 1984) was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e.g. aperture synthesis) and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources.

In 1939, Ryle worked with the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) on the design of antennas for airborne radar equipment during World War II.

After the war, he received a fellowship at the Cavendish Laboratory.

The focus of Ryle's early work in Cambridge was on radio waves from the Sun.

His interest quickly shifted to other areas, however, and he decided early on that the Cambridge group should develop new observing techniques.

As a result, Ryle was the driving force in the creation and improvement of astronomical interferometry and aperture synthesis, which paved the way for massive upgrades in the quality of radio astronomical data.

Ryle was a new physics graduate and an experienced radio ham in 1939, when the Second World War started.

He played an important part in the Allied war effort, working mainly in radar countermeasures.

After the war, "He returned to Cambridge with a determination to devote himself to pure science, unalloyed by the taint of war."

In 1946 Ryle and Derek Vonberg were the first people to publish interferometric astronomical measurements at radio wavelengths.

With improved equipment, Ryle observed the most distant known galaxies in the universe at that time.

He was the first Professor of Radio Astronomy in the University of Cambridge and founding director of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory.

In 1946 Ryle built the first multi-element astronomical radio interferometer.

Ryle guided the Cambridge radio astronomy group in the production of several important radio source catalogues.

While serving as university lecturer in physics at Cambridge from 1948 to 1959, Ryle became director of the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory in 1957 and professor of radio astronomy in 1959.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1952, was knighted in 1966 (p 519 of ) and succeeded Sir Richard Woolley as Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982.

One such catalogue, the Third Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources (3C) in 1959 helped lead to the discovery of the first quasi-stellar object (quasar).

Ryle had heated arguments with Fred Hoyle of the Institute of Astronomy about Hoyle's steady state universe, which restricted collaboration between the Cavendish Radio Astronomy Group and the Institute of Astronomy during the 1960s.

In 1968 Ryle served as professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London.

According to numerous reports Ryle was quick-thinking, impatient with those slower than himself and charismatic (pp 502, 508, 510 of ).

He was also idealistic (p 519 of ), a characteristic he shared with his father (p 499 of, ).

In the 1970s, Ryle turned the greater part of his attention from astronomy to social and political issues which he considered to be more urgent.

Martin Ryle was born in Brighton, England, the son of Professor John Alfred Ryle and Miriam (née Scully) Ryle.

He was the nephew of Oxford University Professor of Philosophy Gilbert Ryle.

After studying at Bradfield College, Ryle studied physics at Christ Church, Oxford.

In the 1970s, Ryle turned the greater part of his attention from astronomy to social and political issues which he considered to be more urgent.

He was the twelfth Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982.

Ryle and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize awarded in recognition of astronomical research.

Ryle and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize awarded in recognition of astronomical research.

With publications from 1976 and continuing, despite illness until he died in 1984, he pursued a passionate and intensive program on the socially responsible use of science and technology.

His main themes were:

In an interview (p271 of ) in 1982 he said "At times one feels that one should almost have a car sticker saying 'Stop Science Now' because we're getting cleverer and cleverer, but we do not increase the wisdom to go with it."

He was also intense and volatile (p 327 of ), the latter characteristic being associated with his mother (p 499 of, Folder A.20 of ).

The historian Owen Chadwick described him as "a rare personality, of exceptional sensitivity of mind, fears and anxieties, care and compassion, humour and anger."

(Folder A.28 of )

Ryle was sometimes considered difficult to work with – he often worked in an office at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory to avoid disturbances from other members of the Cavendish Laboratory and to avoid getting into heated arguments, as Ryle had a hot temper.

Ryle worried that Cambridge would lose its standing in the radio astronomy community as other radio astronomy groups had much better funding, so he encouraged a certain amount of secrecy about his aperture synthesis methods in order to keep an advantage for the Cambridge group.

In 1983 Ryle responded to a request from the President of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences for suggestions of topics to be discussed at a meeting on Science and Peace.

Ryle's reply was published posthumously in Martin Ryle's Letter.

An abridged version appears in New Scientist with the title Martin Ryle's Last Testament.