Abstract
Maxwell, a solar radio astronomer, founded the Harvard College Observatoryâs Radio Astronomy Station and was co-discoverer of a new type of low-frequency solar radio burst. He was also a founding editor of the journal Astrophysical Letters.
Highlights
Alan Maxwell was born on October 21, 1926, in Auckland, New Zealand, into a prosperous merchant family
For his master’s thesis, “Enhanced Solar Radiation at 3-Metre Wavelengths,” he observed the radio emission from the Sun and attempted to correlate the radio bursts with sunspot activity. He adapted a war-surplus radar system with a dual five-element Yagi antenna, which he installed on the roof of a university building. He worked with his advisor, Kurt Kreielsheimer, in a department led by the distinguished physicist and radar pioneer, Percy Burbidge
Because of Fort Davis’s midcontinental location, in 1976, it became a critical node in the U.S Very Long Baseline Network (VLBN), the predecessor of the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)
Summary
Alan Maxwell died on Sunday, August 22, 2021. Alan Maxwell was born on October 21, 1926, in Auckland, New Zealand, into a prosperous merchant family. In 1950, Alan enrolled in the graduate program in physics at Manchester University, U.K., and immediately began helping Francis Graham-Smith, C.
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