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Uco van Wijk

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Uco van Wijk (20 May 1924, Jogjakarta, Dutch East Indies – 10 August 1966) was a Dutch astronomer and educator who founded the astronomy program at the University of Maryland[1] and was instrumental in bringing Gart Westerhout from the Netherlands to become Department Head. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in 1948 and a PhD in 1952.[2]

Honors

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  • The crater Van Wijk on the Moon is named after him.
  • The astronomy library at the University of Maryland is named after him.
  • The Sundial [1] located in the center of McKeldin Mall on the campus was originally a gift from the Class of 1965, the Department of Physics and Astronomy, and friends of Professor Uco Van Wijk. It was renovated with donations from the Class of 1990.

References

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  1. ^ "Obituary: Uco Van Wijk". Physics Today. 19 (10): 121. October 1966. doi:10.1063/1.3047755. Archived from the original on 2013-09-27.
  2. ^ https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1967QJRAS...8..386.
  • Obituary by Bart Bok in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society.