Uco van Wijk (20 May 1924,

Jogjakarta Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

– 10 August 1966) was a Dutch astronomer and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

who founded the astronomy program at the University of Maryland and was instrumental in bringing

Gart Westerhout Gart Westerhout (15 June 1927 – 14 October 2012) was a Dutch-American astronomer. Well before completing his university studies at Leiden, he had already become well-established internationally as a radio astronomer in the Netherlands, spec ...

from the Netherlands to become Department Head. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in 1948 and a PhD in 1952.https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1967QJRAS...8..386.

Honors

* The crater Van Wijk on the Moon is named after him. * The astronomy library at the University of Maryland is named after him. * The Sundia

located in the center of

McKeldin Mall McKeldin Mall is a nine-acre quad in the heart of the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park. Named after Theodore McKeldin, the former Governor of Maryland, McKeldin Mall is the largest academic mall in the United States. It has been ...

on the campus was originally a gift from the Class of 1965, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and friends of Professor Uco Van Wijk. It was renovated with donations from the Class of 1990.

References

Obituary
by

Bart Bok Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, ...

in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wijk, Uco Van 1924 births 1966 deaths Dutch academics 20th-century Dutch astronomers People from Yogyakarta University of Maryland, Baltimore faculty Dutch people of the Dutch East Indies Harvard College alumni