Rodney Deane Davies CBE FRS (8 January 1930 – 8 November 2015) was a Professor of

Radio Astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies Astronomical object, celestial objects using radio waves. It started in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming from the Milky Way. Subsequent observat ...

at 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 ...

. He was the 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 ...

in 1987–1989, and the Director of

Jodrell Bank Observatory 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 as ...

in 1988–97. He is best known for his research on the

Cosmic microwave background The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

and the 21cm line.

Personal life

Davies was born on 8 January 1930 into a family of farmers in

Balaklava Balaklava ( Ukrainian and , , ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklavsky District that used to be part of the Crimean Oblast before it was transferred to Sevast ...

, a village north of

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

, South Australia. His parents were Holbin and Rena Davies. He had three brothers. He met Beth, his wife, at the Student Christian Movement at the University of Adelaide. They married in 1953, and later that same year they moved to

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. They had four children: Rosalyn, Claire, Stewart and Warwick (who predeceased him), and eleven grandchildren: Luke, Josh (m. Cat), Dom, Hannah, Nyasha, Laura, Eleanor, Hettie, Annie, Leo, and Jemima. He became a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

preacher at the age of 16 at his church in South Australia, and regularly attended his Methodist chapel in Manchester. He also had an extensive knowledge of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

He suffered from

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, but carried on working regardless. His health declined in the last two months of his life, and he died on 8 November 2015.

Education and career

He went to Adelaide High School. In 1946 he was awarded a scholarship to study Physics at the

University of Adelaide The University of Adelaide is a public university, public research university based in Adelaide, South Australia. Established in 1874, it is the third-oldest university in Australia. Its main campus in the Adelaide city centre includes many Sa ...

, receiving an Honours degree in 1951. He then became a Research Officer in the Radiophysics Division of

CSIRO The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is an Australian Government agency that is responsible for scientific research and its commercial and industrial applications. CSIRO works with leading organisations arou ...

in Sydney, observing radio bursts from the Sun. When he was 23 he sent an airmail letter to Bernard Lovell, a friend of his then-boss Joe Pawsey, asking for a position at

, and he was subsequently appointed Assistant Lecturer at the

in 1953. He was awarded a PhD in 1956 on his work measuring the distance of galaxies using the 21cm line, examined by Jan Oort. He was the Director of Jodrell Bank Observatory from 1988 until 1997. He was the President of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1987–89. He became 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 1992. He received a CBE in 1995. He retired in 1997, but he continued to actively work at Jodrell Bank until his death.

Research

Over the course of his career, he published over 500 scientific papers. His research focused on the large-scale structure of the Universe. He studied emission from the Hydrogen line in galaxies, providing insight into the Hubble flow. He observed OH emission using interferometers. He was best known for his work measuring the

Cosmic Microwave Background The cosmic microwave background (CMB, CMBR), or relic radiation, is microwave radiation that fills all space in the observable universe. With a standard optical telescope, the background space between stars and galaxies is almost completely dar ...

emission, providing upper limits on the CMB anisotropies, which began with observations on cold winter nights at Jodrell Bank Observatory in the late 1970s, before relocating his telescopes up the mountain on

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

in the early 1980s to take advantage of the clearer atmosphere at that location. By the early 1990s his instruments had detected the anisotropies of the CMB, however the publication of his results came after the results of the

Cosmic Background Explorer The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE ), also referred to as Explorer 66, was a NASA satellite dedicated to cosmology, which operated from 1989 to 1993. Its goals were to investigate the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB or CMBR) of th ...

had been announced; the COBE team went on to win the

Nobel Prize for Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics () is an annual award given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for those who have made the most outstanding contributions to mankind in the field of physics. It is one of the five Nobel Prize, Nobel Prizes establi ...

for their discovery. He also led research on the emission of the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

as measured by CMB experiments. He worked on the Planck satellite, co-coordinating the Planck projects on Galactic and Solar System science. He continued his research over 18 years after his retirement, with his final paper due to be published several months after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Rod 1930 births 2015 deaths Radio astronomers 20th-century Australian astronomers Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Presidents of the Royal Astronomical Society Fellows of the Royal Society People from Balaklava, South Australia University of Adelaide alumni People educated at Adelaide High School Australian emigrants to England