Some Memories of John Bolton from Caltech and Early Years at Parkes

Abstract

John Bolton had such an influence on radio astronomy that a major review of his contributions should be prepared by an historian of science. Here just some events from his last few years at the California Institute of Technology and from the first few years of the Parkes Telescope are recalled.John Bolton had a tremendous influence on the science of radio astronomy. When you think back over his career-first to those pioneering days just after World War II that resulted in the first identifications of radio and optical objects beyond the solar system and produced the early 100-MI-Iz sky surveys, and then to his establishing radio astronomy at Caltech and setting up the Owens Valley Radio Observatory and all that has .flowed from that, then to Parkes, where he established and maintained the observatory over its golden years, providing tremendous support for research by others in fields like spectral-line, pulsar and polarisation studies, and organising numerous sky surveys' and, with his colleagues, pursuing extensive studies of quasars-you can but be amazed at what he accomplished. And to this you must add the influence that he had on so many students and colleagues-v-off-hand, I can think of five or six of John's students who have become directors of radio observatories; one has received a Nobel Prize.I would like to see a major review of John's contributions prepared by an historian of science. I think he deserves it. Such an undertaking is far beyond me. Here I just recall a few memories of John from his last few years at the California Institute of Technology and from the first few years of the Parkes Telescope.In the rapid development of radio astronomy after the second world war, the US somehow got left behind. By the early 1950s, Australia was well ahead of the US in this field. In the mid-1950s, Caltech, already managing the Mt Wilson and Palomar Observatories and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, decided to add radio astronomy to its fields of interest. Lee DuBridge, the president * Refereed paper based on a contribution to the John G. Bolton Memorial Symposium held at the Parkes Observatory, 9-10 December 1993.0004-9506/94/050561$05.00Aust. J. Phys., 1994, 47, 561-7 AbstractJohn Bolton had such an influence on radio astronomy that a major review of his contributions should be prepared by an historian of science. Here just some events from his last few years at the California Institute of Technology and from the first few years of the Parkes Telescope are recalled.