The Bruce Medalists: Adriaan Blaauw

<body bgcolor="#9CCEFF"> <font size="+5"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main"><font color="#CC6600">The Bruce Medalists</font></a></b></font> <p>   </p> <table width="100%" cellspacing="2" cellpadding="0" > <tr><td width = "33%"> </td> <td width = "34%" align="center"><a href="blaauw.jpg"><img src="blaauwSml.jpg" alt="" height="120" width="91" border="2"></a></td> <td width="33%" valign="middle"><font size="-2">Photo ca. 1973, courtesy European Southern Observatory</font></td> <td> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center"><font size="+2"><b><font color="#CC6600">Adriaan Blaauw</font></b></font></td> <tr><td width="33%"><b>12 April 1914</b></td> <td align=center width="34%"><b>1989 Bruce Medalist</b></td> <td align="right"><b> </b></td> </tr> </table> <p>Born in Amsterdam, Adriaan Blaauw studied astronomy at the Universities of <b><a href="http://www.strw.leidenuniv.nl/outreach/history.php?node=76">Leiden</a></b>, where he worked with <b><a href="../Oort/index.html">Jan Oort</a></b> and <b><a href="../Hertzsprung/index.html">Ejnar Hertzsprung</a></b>, and <b><a href="http://www.rug.nl/sterrenkunde/organisatie/geschiedenis">Groningen</a></b>, where he earned his doctorate under Pieter van Rhijn. In 1945 he returned to Leiden, from which he participated in an expedition to Kenya in 1949-50, and made lengthy visits to <b><a href="http://astro.uchicago.edu/yerkes/history.html">Yerkes Observatory</a></b>, where he became a member of the staff in 1953. Four years later he returned to the Netherlands to become director of the University of Groningen’s <b><a href="http://www.rug.nl/sterrenkunde/organisatie/geschiedenis">Kapteyn Astronomical Laboratory</a></b>, which he rebuilt into a major research center concentrating on galactic structure. His scientific contributions have concerned the motions of star clusters and associations, “<b><a href="http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-1997/pr-01-97.html">runaway stars</a></b>,” star formation, and the determination of the cosmic distance scale. From 1975 to 1981 he was a professor at Leiden. Blaauw has been a leader in international collaborations. He played a significant role in the construction of the <a href="http://www.eso.org/"><b>European Southern Observatory</b></a> in Chile, serving two years as scientific director and then as director general from 1970 to 1975. He lent ESO support and became the first chairman of the board of directors of <cite><a href="http://www.aanda.org/content/view/103/107/lang,en/"><b>Astronomy and Astrophysics,</b></a></cite> when that journal was formed by the merger of most European astronomy journals in 1968. He chaired the Scientific Proposals Selection Committee for the astrometric satellite <cite><a href="http://www.esa.int/science/hipparcos"><b>HIPPARCOS.</b></a></cite>. Since his 1981 retirement he has returned to the Kapteyn Institute at Groningen and written several historical articles and books, mostly on international organizations and collaborations in astronomy, but also on Dutch farmhouses and the village in which he lives.</p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Presentation of Bruce medal</font></FONT></b><br> <i>Mercury</i> <b>18</b>, 6, 197 (1989). <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Some offices held</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://www.iau.org/">International Astronomical Union</a>, President, 1976-79.<br></p> <p> <b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Biographical materials</font></FONT></b><br> Blaauw, Adriaan, “My Cruise Through the World of Astronomy,” <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004ARA%26A..42....1B"><i>Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys.</i> <b>42</b>, 1-37 (2004)</a>.<br> Boland, W. & H. van Woerden, eds., <i>Birth and Evolution of Massive Stars and Stellar Groups, Proceedings of the Symposium, Dwingeloo, Netherlands, September 24-26, 1984</i>(D. Reidel, Dordrecht, 1985) contains many articles about Blaauw and a bibliography.<br> Echternach, E., “ Adriaan Blaauw: Zestig Jaar Sterrenkunde,” <i>Zenit</i> <b>19</b>, 204-08 (1992) [in Dutch].<br> Pottasch, Stuart R, “Adriaan Blaauw at 80,” <a href="http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1994Msngr..76...62P"><i>ESO Messenger</i> <b>76</b>, 62-63 (1994)</a>.<br> </p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Portraits</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://photos.aip.org/">AIP Center for History of Physics</a> (3 photos)<br> <a href="http://www.astro.rug.nl/SECR/HISTORY/PICTURES/blaauw.htm">University of Groningen, 1999</a></p> <p><b><font size="+1"><font color="#CC6600">Named after him</font></FONT></b><br> <a href="http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/MPNames.html#B">Minor Planet #2145 Blaauw</a><br> <p><b><font size="+1"><a href="BlaauwRefs.html" target="_self">More references</a></font></b></p> <p> <div align="center"><b><a href="../Intro.html" target="main">The Bruce Medalists</a></b></div> </p> <p><table width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP"><font size="-1">Please send comments, additions, corrections, and questions to<br> <a href="MAILTO:joe.tenn@sonoma.edu"> joe.tenn@sonoma.edu</a><br></font></td> <td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><font size="-1"><i> <a href="http://www.phys-astro.sonoma.edu/people/faculty/tenn/">JST</a> </i><br> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html">2010-02-05</a></font></td> </tr> </table></p> </body>