Frank Bradshaw "Brad" Wood

FRAS FRAS may refer to: * Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger ...

(21 December 1915,

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States census. Jackson ...

– 10 December 1997, Gainesville, Florida) was an astronomer, specializing in

photometry Photometry can refer to: * Photometry (optics), the science of measurement of visible light in terms of its perceived brightness to human vision * Photometry (astronomy), the measurement of the flux or intensity of an astronomical object's electro ...

. Wood graduated in 1936 with a bachelor's degree in physics from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. He graduated in astronomy from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

with an MA in 1940 and a PhD in 1941. His dissertation, published in 1946, was supervised by

Raymond Smith Dugan Raymond Smith Dugan (May 30, 1878 – August 31, 1940) was an American astronomer and discoverer of minor planets. His parents were Jeremiah Welby and Mary Evelyn Smith and he was born in Montague in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. His undergr ...

for three years until Dugan's death in 1940 and then by

Henry Norris Russell Henry Norris Russell ForMemRS HFRSE FRAS (October 25, 1877 – February 18, 1957) was an American astronomer who, along with Ejnar Hertzsprung, developed the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram (1910). In 1923, working with Frederick Saunders, he d ...

in 1940–1941. When the United States entered World War II, Wood enlisted in the US Navy, serving in the Pacific and reaching the rank of lieutenant commander. In 1945 he married Elizabeth H. Pepper. In 1946 he was a research assistant at Princeton University. From 1947 to 1950 he was an assistant professor and assistant astronomer at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

. At the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, Wood was associate professor and executive director of the observatories from 1950 to 1954 and full professor and director of the observatories from 1954 to 1968. He supervised the design and construction of Flower and Cook Observatory at a site about 29 kilometers west of the University of Pennsylvania and recruited faculty for modernizing and expanding the University of Pennsylvania's department of astronomy. He became an international leader in research on close binary stars. At the University of Florida, he was professor and director of the optical observatories from 1968 to 1989 when he retired as professor emeritus. He was the author or co-author of nearly 100 publications. Among his doctoral students was the famous astrophysicist and science fiction writer

Yoji Kondo was a Japanese-born American astrophysicist who also wrote science fiction under the pseudonym Eric Kotani. He edited '' Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master'' (1992), and contributed to '' New Des ...

. The

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; french: link=yes, Union astronomique internationale, UAI) is a nongovernmental organisation with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreac ...

dedicated to Professor Wood the book ''Algols — Proceedings of the 107th Colloquium'' (from the meeting held in August 1988 in

Sidney, British Columbia Sidney is a town located at the northern end of the Saanich Peninsula, on Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It's 1 of the 13 Greater Victoria municipalities. It has a population of approximately 11,583. Sidney is ...

). Upon his death in 1997 he was survived by his widow, a son, and three daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wood, Frank Bradshaw 1915 births 1997 deaths American astronomers University of Florida alumni Princeton University alumni University of Pennsylvania faculty University of Florida faculty Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society