Born Brighton, United Kingdom, 27 September 1918
Died Cambridge, United Kingdom, 14 October 1984
One of the founders of radio astronomy, Martin Ryle is remembered particularly for the development of aperture synthesis, which earned him a share of the 1974 Nobel Prize, as well as for his prominent role in the Steady State versus Big Bang cosmological model debate, by considering the interpretation of radio source counts.
The son of John Alfred Ryle, a distinguished physician, and Miriam Scully, he studied Physics at Oxford University. Upon graduating in 1939, Ryle moved to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge to work on the ionosphere with J.A. “Jack” Ratcliffe. Following the outbreak of war, however, he joined the Telecommunications Research Establishment and focussed on electronic countermeasures for confusing radar systems. He designed airborne radar antennas and quickly was given charge of a small group that developed signal generators and meters for the new 10 cm waveband.
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Selected References
F. Graham-Smith “Sir Martin Ryle: A Biographical Memoir.” Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 33 (1986): 495–524.
B. Lovell “Martin Ryle.” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 26 (1985): 358–368.
G. Pooley “Obituary: Sir Martin Ryle.” Observatory 104 (1984): 283–284.
M. Ryle “Towards the Nuclear Holocaust.” 1980, Menard Press, London.
M. Ryle “Politics of Nuclear Disarmament.” 1981, Pluto Press, London.
M. Ryle and A. Hewish “The Synthesis of Large Radio Telescopes.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 120 (1960): 220–230.
M. Ryle and F.G. Smith “A New Intense Source of Radio-Frequency Radiation in the Constellation of Cassiopeia.” Nature 162 (1948): 462–463.
M. Ryle, F.G. Smith and B. Elsmore “A Preliminary Survey of the Radio Stars in the Northern Hemisphere.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 110 (1950): 508–523. [The 1C survey].
M. Ryle, D.D. Vonberg “Solar Radiation on 175 Mc./s.” Nature 158 (1946): 339–340.
W.T. Sullivan III. “The entry of radio astronomy into cosmology: radio stars and Martin Ryle’s 2C survey.” In “Modern Cosmology in Retrospect”, ed. B. Bertotti, R. Balbinot, S. Bergia and A. Messina. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 309–330.
W.T. Sullivan III. “Some highlights of Interferometry in early Radio Astronomy.” in “Radio interferometry: Theory, techniques, and applications” Proceedings of the 131st IAU Colloquium, ASP Conference Series, San Francisco, pp. 132–149.
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Scott, D. (2014). Ryle, Martin. In: Hockey, T., et al. Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9917-7_9418
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