Antoni Przybylski

Przybylski in the 1960s

Antoni Przybylski (1913 in Rogoźno — September 21, 1984 in Queanbeyan)[1], (Polish pronunciation [anˈtɔɲi pʂɨˈbɨlskʲi]), sometimes referred to as "Bill",[2] was a Polish-Australian astronomer best known as the namesake of Przybylski's Star.

Early life

In the 1930s, Przybylski attended the University of Poznan and worked as a research assistant at their observatory,[2] where he studied comets.[3] At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Polish Army and served as an artillery officer during the defense of Warsaw, after which he was taken prisoner and interned in Mecklenburg.[2] In 1941, he escaped, and made his way to Switzerland, where he spent the rest of the war as a student and instructor at ETH Zurich,[2] eventually earning a master's degree in chemistry.[3]

Australia

In 1950, Przybylski emigrated to Australia. There, he spent five months as a manual laborer[4] before coming to the attention of Richard Woolley,[3] who recruited him to work at Mount Stromlo Observatory (part of the then-nascent Australian National University). Woolley subsequently awarded him a scholarship, and then became his thesis supervisor; eventually, Przybylski received the first doctorate bestowed by ANU,[5] for his thesis on the theory of stellar atmospheres.[6]

In 1957, Woolley was replaced as director of Mount Stromlo by Bart Bok, who mandated that the observatory's theoreticians also participate in direct observation; this led directly to Przybylski's discovery that HD101065 is a peculiar star.[6] Przybylski also was the first to "attempt(... a) fine analysis of a high dispersion spectrum of a star in the Magellanic Clouds".[6]

After retiring from astronomy, Przybylski studied botany, zoology, and geology as a hobby.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Przybylski, Antoni, by Thomas Hockey, in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers; published 2014 by Springer Verlag
  2. 1 2 3 4 Przybylski, Antoni (Bill) (1913–1985), by Ben Gascoigne, originally published in the ANU Reporter, October 1985; archived at Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; retrieved April 13, 2018
  3. 1 2 3 SCIENTIST HAS FOUND HIS NICHE IN AUSTRALIA, in the Canberra Times; published April 13, 1954; archived at Trove; retrieved April 13, 2018
  4. ↑ "Ditch Digger Now Satellite Authority", in the Catholic Advance (Wichita, Kansas); page 9; April 25, 1958
  5. 1 2 Explorers of the Southern Sky: A History of Australian Astronomy, by Raymond Haynes; published June 27, 1996, by Cambridge University Press
  6. 1 2 3 HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMY: From the Sun to the Universe - The Woolley and Bok Directorships at Mount Stromlo, by A. R. Hyland and D. J. Faulkner; in Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia volume 8 (2), 1989
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.