Frank John Kerr (8 January 191815 September 2000) was an Australian astronomer and physicist who made contributions to human understanding of the galactic structure of the Milky Way. Born in

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major ...

to Australian parents, Kerr returned with his family to Australia after the completion of World War I. He received degrees in physics at the University of Melbourne and an MA in astronomy from Harvard University (1951). In 1940, Frank had joined the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) radiophysics laboratory in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

under the mentorship of Joseph Lade Pawsey. He pioneered the use of the magnetron, and also studied

superrefraction Anomalous propagation (sometimes shortened to anaprop or anoprop) Peter Meischner (ed.), ''Weather Radar: Principles and Advanced Applications'', Springer Science & Business Media, 2005, page 144 includes different forms of radio propagation due t ...

. In Australia in late 1951, Kerr used a specially built 36-foot transit telescope, the largest dish of its kind in Australia, and started mapping the Magellanic Clouds, discovering considerable amounts of

neutral hydrogen The hydrogen line, 21 centimeter line, or H I line is the electromagnetic radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation has a precise frequency of , w ...

and an extended envelope around both clouds. From 1954 to 1955, Kerr was a member of the team that determined the rotation of the Magellanic Clouds and their masses. Kerr coined the term "galactic warp" to refer to the distorting effect of the Magellanic Clouds' gravity on the shape of our own galaxy. Over the years he worked with various astronomers, including

Colin Gum Colin Stanley Gum (4 June 1924 – 29 April 1960) was an Australian astronomer known for his cataloguing of emission nebulae and the publication of his findings. Early life and education Gum was born at Quambi Hospital in Adelaide, South Au ...

and Gart Westerhout. From 1966 to 1979, he was a visiting, then full, professor of astronomy at the University of Maryland, College Park. Kerr was the Director of the Astronomy Program during the mid-1970s. From 1978 to 1985, Kerr then acted as the Provost of the Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Engineering Division at the University of Maryland. He died of cancer at Silver Spring, Maryland.

References

External links

Physics Today 2001Obituary
by

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

20th-century Australian astronomers 1918 births 2000 deaths Harvard University alumni University of Maryland, College Park faculty University of Melbourne alumni {{astronomer-stub