A workshop on the history of Canadian radio astronomy was held at Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in Penticton, BC, on Monday July 25 and Tuesday July 26, 2016.

A major motivation for the workshop centered around the work of Richard Jarrell, the author of The Cold Light of Dawn: A History of Canadian Astronomy.  Richard collected an extensive archive on the history of Canadian radio astronomy, including many interviews with all the original players. Richard had just begun writing a book on this topic at the time of his passing in late 2013.  A group of Canadian radio astronomers hopes to finish writing this book following the outline Richard provided and using his archival material. To this end, in addition to topics of worldwide importance to the history of radio astronomy, contributions were solicited on topics pertaining to the development of radio astronomy in Canada.

The workshop dates coalesced around the planned visits of Miller Goss (NRAO) and Woody Sullivan (Washington) to DRAO.  Radio astronomers first, Miller and Woody have both become practicing historians of radio astronomy (more details of their work can be found below).  After Miller and Woody agreed to coordinate their visits to DRAO and present seminars on historical topics in radio astronomy, the idea of building a workshop around that theme was hatched.  An open discussion was held with Woody, Miller, and NRAO Archivist Ellen Bouton about lessons learned by—and advice from and for—astronomers looking to practice history.

Richard Jarrell: To learn more about Richard’s career, please read Randall Rosenfeld’s obituary of Richard in the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada:
The Value of Astronomy for a Civilized Society: Richard Adrian Jarrell 1946–2013

Miller Goss: Miller has recently begun to publish a series of books covering interesting figures in the history of radio astronomy, including two books on Ruby Payne-Scott, 2010’s Under the Radar: The First Woman in Radio Astronomy: Ruby Payne-Scott and 2013’s Making Waves: The Story of Ruby Payne-Scott: Australian Pioneer Radio Astronomer; Miller is currently finishing a book on the career of Australian radio astronomer Joseph Lade Pawsey.

Woody Sullivan: Woody has made a career of documenting radioastronomical history, beginning in the 1970s at which time he began collecting an extensive set of recorded interviews with major figures in radio astronomy.  Transcripts and audio from a number of these interviews can be found on the NRAO Archive website at:

https://www.nrao.edu/archives/Sullivan/sullivan.shtml

Woody has also published a number of books on the subject, including 1982’s Classics in Radio Astronomy (available for free perusal on archive.org here), 1984’s The Early Years of Radio Astronomy: Reflections Fifty Years after Jansky’s Discovery, and 2009’s Cosmic Noise: A History of Early Radio Astronomy.

Ron Allen (STScI)
Ellen Bouton (NRAO)
Henry Bradford (Canadian Coast Guard College)
Jo-Anne Brown (U. Calgary)
Dick Butler (CRC)
Wayne Cannon (York)
Dave Del Rizzo (NRC/DRAO)
James Di Francesco (NRC/DAO)
Sean Dougherty (NRC/DRAO)
Mary Ferguson (NRC/DRAO)
Joseph Fletcher (NRC/ARO)
Tyler Foster (Brandon)
Miller Goss (NRAO)
Ann Gower (UVic)
Jim Gower (DFO)
Andrew Gray (NRC/DRAO)
Phil Gregory (UBC)
Elizabeth Griffin (NRC/DAO)
Bob Hayward (NRAO, Retired)
Jim Hesser (NRC/DAO)
Lloyd Higgs (NRC/DRAO)
Mohammad Islam (NRC/DRAO)
Martha Jarrell
Michael Kesteven (CSIRO)
Helen Kirk (NRC/DAO)
Lewis Knee (NRC/DAO)
Roland Kothes (NRC/DRAO)
Phil Kronberg (UT)
Tom Landecker (NRC/DRAO)
Lisa Locke (NRC/DAO)
John MacLeod (NRC/ARO)
Brenda Matthews (NRC/DAO)
Bill McCutcheon (UBC)
Kochu Menon (UBC)
Bill Petrachenko (NRC/DRAO)
Chris Purton (NRC/DRAO)
Tim Robishaw (DRAO)
Rob Roger (NRC/DRAO)
Randall Rosenfeld (UT)
Dave Routledge (U. Alberta)
Gerald Schieven (NRC/DAO)
Wendell Shuster (NRC/DRAO)
Woody Sullivan (UW)
Ken Tapping (DRAO)
Jacques Vallée (NRC/DAO)
Fred Vaneldik (U. Alberta)
Jasper Wall (UBC)
Tony Willis (DRAO)

TALK VIDEOS:

The talks were recorded and can be viewed on youtube at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbvmO2TFfPk-EhU1Pcysw71LT9TO7pNva

or they can be viewed right here on this page from the window below (a symbol will appear in the upper left of the video showing three vertical bars with a triangle… click on this to access the playlist showing the full list of videos):

Thanks to Joseph Fletcher, we now have the talks from 1987’s NRC workshop “Radio Astronomy and Canada: Fifty Years of Progress” (1987 workshop program here):

PROGRAM:

MONDAY

TUESDAY

Workshop Photos

Front Row L-R: Miller Goss, Phil Gregory, Jasper Wall, Martha Jarrell, Jacques Vallee, Tim Robishaw, Woody Sullivan, Phil Kronberg, Helen Kirk; Middle Row L-R: Henry Bradford, Fred Vaneldik, Rob Roger, Bill McCutcheon, Elizabeth Griffin, Dick Butler, Gordon Lacy, Ellen Bouton, John MacLeod, Dave Routledge, Lloyd Higgs, Chris Purton, Kochu Menon, Ron Allen, Andrew Gray, Ann Gower, Gerald Schieven, Joseph Fletcher, Jim Gower, Tyler Foster, Roland Kothes, Lewis Knee, Jo-Anne Brown, Lisa Locke, Dave Del Rizzo; Top Row L-R: Bruce Veidt, Randall Rosenfeld, Bill Petrachenko, Wayne Cannon, Tom Landecker, Wendell Shuster, Tony Willis, Brenda Matthews, Bob Hayward, Sean Dougherty, James Di Francesco

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