Bernard Lovell (1913-2012) Physicist and Radar Pioneer Who Created the Famous Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope

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COMMENT OBITUARY Bernard Lovell (1913-2012) Physicist and radar pioneer who created the famous Jodrell Bank radio telescope.

ith vision, inspiration and deter- a small team built a parabolic reflector in the Western world. Suddenly everyone mination, Bernard Lovell created 66 metres in diameter, made of wires stretched realized the telescope’s importance. Lord the Jodrell Bank Observatory in between scaffold poles. Robert Hanbury Nuffield paid off the debt, half personally WCheshire, UK, and the great radio telescope Brown used this dish to discover radio waves and half from the Nuffield Foundation, and there that bears his name. Through his lead- from the Andromeda galaxy. It was the start serious astronomy could begin. ership, generations of astronomers developed of astronomy at Jodrell Bank. That dish was The telescope fulfilled Lovell’s vision of the tools of radio astronomy that have revo- fixed and could only stare upwards. Lovell’s opening a new window on the Universe. It lutionized astrophysics and cosmology. had illustrious roles in early space explo- Lovell was born in Oldland Common ration, in the discovery of quasars and the near Bristol, UK, and educated at the local first gravitational lens, and in the discov- Kingswood Grammar School. He was ery and study of pulsars, or neutron stars, PHOTOSHOT PHOTOSHOT attracted to science through a lecture by which have provided the most precise physicist Arthur Tyndall. He joined Tyn- tests of Einstein’s general theory of rela- dall as a research student at the University tivity. After 55 years and two major refur- of Bristol, where his meticulous work on bishments, the telescope is still working at the resistance of thin metallic films earned the frontiers of knowledge. him a PhD in 1936. Taking up a lectureship Jodrell Bank Observatory, the aca- at the University of Manchester, UK, Lovell demic institution set up in the telescope’s became interested in research on cosmic shadow, is established as an international rays, joining the group of Patrick Blackett, centre for astrophysics and technology. who was developing cloud-chamber tech- It was chosen last year to host the head- niques for the rays’ detection. quarters of the Square Kilometre Array, Lovell followed Blackett into govern- which will be the world’s largest radio tel- ment science, becoming a key figure in escope when it is built in South Africa and the development of radar in the Second Australia in coming decades. World War. Lovell’s group designed an Warm and generous, Lovell took par- airborne radar system that operated at a ticular pleasure in the millions of people wavelength of 10 centimetres, with high who came to the observatory’s visitor cen- positional accuracy. Lovell also designed tre, which he initiated 41 years ago. His large, airborne scanning antennas that instinct for good science and his empathy required big holes to be cut in aircraft fuse- ambition was to build a steerable reflector at with staff and students led him to allocate lages. The radars, vital for navigation and able least as big. He started on plans for the iconic telescope time without controversy. He to detect surfaced German U-boats, were 76-metre-diameter dish that we know as the retained a close interest in the observatory installed in the aircraft of Coastal Command Lovell Telescope. after he retired, but as the directors who suc- and Bomber Command and had a dramatic Building such an innovative, huge instru- ceeded him, we can attest that he never told effect in the battle of the Atlantic. ment required extraordinary determination us what to do with his telescope. While working at one of the Chain Home and powers of persuasion. The telescope’s Lovell received many honours, and served radar stations that guarded the UK coast, original cost more than doubled from as president of the Royal Astronomical Society Lovell saw the background of sporadic ech- £259,000 in 1952 to £640,000 in 1956 (today (1969–71) and of the British Association for oes against which the aircraft signals had equivalent to £13 million, or US$21 million). the Advancement of Science (1975–76). But to be distinguished, and wondered where This was mainly because the discovery by he was most pleased when the telescope was they came from. He discussed with Black- Dutch astronomers in 1951 of a spectral line given his name to mark its 30th anniversary. ett whether they might be reflections from at the relatively short wavelength of 21 cen- Outside science, Lovell was an accom- ionized clouds in the atmosphere, perhaps timetres from hydrogen in interstellar space plished musician, playing the organ regularly formed by cosmic-ray showers, an idea he demanded a more precise reflecting surface. in the church of his home village of Swetten- pursued after the war. The UK government and the university met ham in Cheshire. He was a keen cricketer and Returning to Manchester in 1945, Lovell most of the increase, leaving a debt of £50,000 horticulturalist, establishing arboretums adja- used his wartime experiences to develop the for which Lovell became personally respon- cent to the telescope and to his home. He was Jodrell Bank Observatory. An army radar sible. He was faced with an enquiry by the much loved and respected by his colleagues. ■ brought to Manchester was moved some government’s Public Accounts Committee, 30 kilometres out of the city to a university and with the possibility of imprisonment. Francis Graham Smith, Rodney Davies botany site to escape electrical interference The launch of the Sputnik satellite by and Andrew Lyne are emeritus professors from trams. The source of the echoes Lovell the Soviet Union in 1957 transformed this of physics at the University of Manchester, had seen while at the Chain Home radar was embarrassing situation. Typically, Lovell UK, and former directors of the Jodrell Bank soon revealed: meteor trails. (No echoes have rose to the occasion. The new telescope Observatory (in 1981–88, 1988–97 and ever been detected from cosmic rays.) obtained echoes from the Sputnik launch 1997–2006, respectively). Lovell wanted a larger antenna. He and vehicle, a feat unmatched anywhere else e-mail: [email protected]