Reginald Lawson Waterfield

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Reginald Lawson Waterfield ( April 12, 1900 - June 10, 1986 in Woolston , Somerset ) was a British medic and astronomer .

Waterfield became a doctor at Guy's Hospital in London after serving at the front in World War I. From 1927 to 1929 he was on the staff of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, but then returned to Guy's Hospital until 1937. This was followed by a longer stay in Switzerland. In 1942 he took part in World War II in North Africa , was wounded and then retired from the army. He returned to Guy's Hospital but became ill with polio in 1949, which confined him to a wheelchair for the remaining 37 years of his life. Nevertheless, he continued his work at Guy's Hospital. In addition, he developed the Waterfield spherocytometer named after him.

Waterfield was also successful in astronomical terms. Based on the fact that he had seen the comet of the day in 1910, he began observing the sky more intensively from 1913. As early as 1914 he took his first sun photos. In the same year he also regularly visited the Mills Observatory in Dundee, where he continued his research with a 250 mm refractor. In 1916 he was allowed to use a 150 mm Cooke refractor from the industrialist J. Player in Cheltenham. He eventually acquired this telescope and kept it until the end of his life. For a long time, his main interest was Mars, which he explored intensively, and solar research. From 1932, however, he mainly devoted himself to comet research, even if he did not discover his "own" comet. However, he managed to take many pictures of comet Arend-Roland (1957) and comet Bennett (1970).

In 1916 he had already joined the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS). From 1959 to 1961 he was its vice-president. From 1931 to 1942 he was director and from 1954 to 1956 president of the Mars section of this association.

Honors

  • 1942: Jackson Gwilt Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society
  • 1969: Comet Medal from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

The asteroid Waterfield was also named after him.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Waterfield, Reginald Lawson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British medic and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH April 12, 1900
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1986
Place of death Woolston , Somerset