Sir Francis Graham-Smith (born 25 April 1923) is a British

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. He was the 13th

Astronomer Royal Astronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the astronomer royal dating from 22 June 1675; the junior is the astronomer royal for Scotland dating from 1834. The Astro ...

from 1982 to 1990 and was knighted in 1986.

Education

Graham-Smith was educated at

Rossall School Rossall School is a private Day school, day and boarding school, boarding school in the United Kingdom for 0–18 year olds, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood, Lancashire. Rossall was founded in 1844 by St. Vincent Beechey, St Vincent Beechey as a ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England, and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

where he was a student of

Downing College, Cambridge Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge and currently has around 950 students. Founded in 1800, it was the only college to be added to the university between 1596 and 1869, and is often described as the oldest of ...

from 1941.

Career and research

In the late 1940s he worked at the

on the

Long Michelson Interferometer The Long Michelson Interferometer was a radio telescope interferometer built by Martin Ryle and co-workers in the late 1940s beside a rifle range to the west of Cambridge, England. The interferometer consisted of 2 fixed elements 440m apart to sur ...

. In 1964 he was appointed Professor of Radio Astronomy the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

and in 1981 director of the Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories, part of the University of Manchester at

Jodrell Bank Jodrell Bank Observatory ( ) in Cheshire, England hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astron ...

. He was also

Director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory The director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory was the senior scientist responsible for the administration of the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1972 until the institution's closure in 1998. History Executive responsibility for the Royal Obser ...

from 1975 to 1981. He appeared in Episode 13 of Series 4 of ''Treasure Hunt'' when the show visited Jodrell Bank, giving presenter

Anneka Rice Anne Lucinda Hartley Rice (born 4 October 1958), known professionally as Anneka Rice, is a British television and radio presenter, journalist and painter. She began her broadcasting career with the BBC World Service and later moved to childr ...

a piggy back to allow her to reach a clue. His doctoral students include

Andrew Lyne Andrew Geoffrey Lyne (born 13 July 1942) is a British physicist. Lyne is Langworthy Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, as well as an ex-director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory. Despite retiri ...

. His published work includes * ''Optics'' (1971) * ''Pathways to the Universe'' (1988) * ''Pulsar Astronomy'' (1990) * ''An Introduction to Radio Astronomy'' (1997) * ''Unseen Cosmos'' (2013) * ''Eyes on the Sky'' (2016)

Awards and honours

His awards and honours include: * elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1970 and was awarded their

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society. Two are given for "the mo ...

in 1987 * served as president of the

Royal Astronomical Society The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is a learned society and charitable organisation, charity that encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, planetary science, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. Its ...

from 1975 to 1977 * served as the thirteenth

from 1982 to 1990 * Awarded the

Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize The Richard Glazebrook Medal and Prize is awarded annually by the Institute of Physics to recognise leadership in the field of physics. It was established in 1966 and named in honour of Sir Richard T. Glazebrook, the first president of the Insti ...

in 1991 In 1965 he was invited to co-deliver the

Royal Institution Christmas Lecture The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures are a series of lectures on a single topic each, which have been held at the Royal Institution in London each year since 1825. The lectures present scientific subjects to a general audience, including you ...

on ''Exploration of the Universe''.

Personal life

Graham-Smith is an avid bee-keeper and kept up this hobby well into his 90s, looking after the hives at Jodrell Bank. He also inspired the creation of the

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

Amateur Beekeeping Society. He lived with his wife Elizabeth in the Old School House in

Henbury, Cheshire Henbury is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census, the entire civil parish had a population of 594.Martin Ryle Sir Martin Ryle (27 September 1918 – 14 October 1984) was an English radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems (see e.g. aperture synthesis) and used them for accurate location and imaging of weak radio sourc ...

in 1945-6 in Cambridge in the early days of radio astronomy. He celebrated his

100th birthday 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

on 25 April 2023. Sir Francis Graham-Smith is a Distinguished Supporter of

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent Irreligion in the United Kingdom, non-religious people in the UK throug ...

is the President o
Macclesfield Astronomical Society
and is a patron of Mansfield and Sutton Astronomical Society.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graham-Smith, Francis 1923 births Living people 20th-century British astronomers Place of birth missing (living people) Alumni of Downing College, Cambridge Astronomers Royal Fellows of Downing College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Rossall School Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society Knights Bachelor British men centenarians British humanists Royal Medal winners