Martin Ryle

SIR MARTIN RYLE d1984. English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sources. In 1946, he and Derek Vonberg were the first people to publish interferometric astronomical measurements at radio wavelengths. With improved equipment, he 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. He was the twelfth Astronomer Royal from 1972 to 1982. He and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize awarded in recognition of astronomical research. In the 1970s, he turned the greater part of his attention from astronomy to social and political issues which he considered to be more urgent. He died in cambridge aged 66 on October 14th 1984