| R. Hanbury Brown AKA Robert Hanbury Brown Born: 31-Aug-1916
Birthplace: Aruvankadu, India
Died: 16-Jan-2002
Location of death: Andover, Hampshire, England
Cause of death: Cancer - unspecified
Gender: Male
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Astronomer, Inventor Nationality: England
Executive summary: Optical intensity interferometer Working with mathematician Richard Q. Twiss, astronomer R. Hanbury Brown invented the optical intensity interferometer, a telescopic device that allowed astronomers to study stars that until then had been little more than flickers of light, even as mathematicians, physicists, and other experts scoffed that such a device was physically impossible.
Early in his career, Brown worked with Robert Watson-Watt on the secret development of radar, then headed a group that developed a shorter-wavelength radar for use in aircraft. After World War II, his research showed that cosmic radio waves emanate from the Andromeda spiral galaxy, leading to the modern understanding of quasars -- "quasi-stellar objects", and he devised methods for minimizing background noises that had plagued early radio astronomy. His autobiography is titled Boffin, an Australian colloquialism with a meaning somewhere between "geek" and "egghead". His grandfather, also named Robert Hanbury Brown, was knighted for his extensive work and writings on irrigation.
Wife: Heather Hilda Chesterman Brown (m. 1952, d. 2003, twin sons, one daughter)
Son: Robert Brown
Son: Jordan Brown
Daughter: Marion Hanbury Brown (pathologist)
High School: Tonbridge School, Kent, England
University: BS Electrical Engineering, Brighton Technical College
University: MS, Telecommunications, University of London (1935)
Scholar: Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer, University of Sydney
Scholar: Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester
Hughes Medal 1971
Eddington Medal 1968 (with Richard Q. Twiss)
Order of Australia 1986
International Astronomical Union President (1982-85)
Royal Society 1960
Author of books:
The Exploration of Space by Radio (1957, with Sir Bernard Lovell)
Interferometry of the Intensity Fluctuations in Light (1958, with Richard Q. Twiss)
The Intensity Interferometer: Its Application to Astronomy (1974)
Man and the Stars (1978)
The Wisdom of Science: Its Relevance to Culture and Religion (1986)
Boffin: A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy and Quantum Optics (1991, autobiography)
There Are No Dinosaurs in the Bible: An Astronomer Talks about Religion and Fundamentalism (2002, posthumous)
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