Wilbur Norman Christiansen 1913 - 2007

Abstract

W. N. (?Chris') Christiansen was an innovative and influential radio astronomy pioneer. The hallmarks of his long and distinguished career in science and engineering, spanning almost five decades, were his inventiveness and his commitment to, and success with, large-scale projects. These projects were the outcome of his innovative skill as physicist and engineer. Paralleling this was his equal commitment to forging strong international links and friendships, leading to his election as Vice-President of the International Astronomical Union for the years 1964 to 1970, as President of the International Union of Radio Science, URSI, from 1978 to 1981, and subsequently as Honorary Life President in 1984, and as Foreign Secretary of the Australian Academy of Science from 1981 to 1985. Major subsequent developments in radio astronomy and wireless communications on the global scene stand as a legacy to Chris's approach to his work and to the development of those who worked with him.

History of Astronomy in Australia: Big-Impact Astronomy from World War II until the Lunar Landing (1945–1969)

“…Furthermore, now just outside the top-ten are (Roberts [201], 'Solar Radio Bursts of Spectral Type II') and (Kerr [156], 'A Magellanic effect on the galaxy') by authors we have met. [71,431,432] in the late 1940s and early 1950s [433]. Hindman went on to co-publish 17 refereed articles up until 1970.…”

“…He is known for designing and building the 450 m long "Mills Cross telescope" [237] that was at Fleurs-now called Badgery's Creek where Sydney's second airport is under construction-in which the fan beams of two long antennae at right-angles to each other were combined to produce a (49 arcmin) pencil beam [238]. Left without adequate CSIRO funding-which was committed to the Parkes radio telescope and the Culgoora Radioheliograph-in 1960, he and Wilbur Norman "Chris" Christiansen (1913-2007: Frater and Goss [239], Orchiston and Mathewson [240]) of the "Chris Cross Telescope" left CSIRO and joined the staff at the University of Sydney. In 1967 they completed the "Super Cross" (aka One-Mile Mills Cross) telescope with 1.6 km arms out near Bungendore, 30 kilometres east of Canberra.…”

First Interferometry in Radio Astronomy- Ruby Payne-Scott - Type I Solar Bursts Observed on Australia Day, 26 January 1946

“…I first met Richard Schilizzi in Sydney in August or September 1967. I had recently arrived at the CSIRO 3 Division of Radiophysics as a postdoc from the University of California, Berkeley. Fortunately the CSIRO radio astronomers had not yet moved from the Sydney University grounds to the new location at Epping; this move was to occur in early 1968.…”