Antoni 'Bill' Przybylski
Antoni Przybylski, Mt. Stromlo observatory, Australia, May 1954
Born1913
Rogoźno, Poland[1]
Died21 September 1985 (aged 72)[1]
Queanbeyan, New South Wales, Australia [1]
CitizenshipPolish, Australian[2]
Education
Known forPrzybylski's Star
Scientific career
FieldsChemistry, Astronomy, Natural Science
Institutions
ThesisThe maximum effect of convection in stellar atmospheres on the observed properties of stellar spectra (1953)

Antoni Przybylski (1913 — September 21, 1985),[1][3] (Polish pronunciation [anˈtɔɲi pʂɨˈbɨlskʲi]), sometimes referred to as "Bill",[1] was a Polish-Australian astronomer best known for discovering the star that was named for him.[4]

Early life

In the 1930s, Przybylski attended the University of Poznan and worked as a research assistant at their observatory,[1] where he studied comets.[2]

World War II

At the outbreak of the Second World War, he joined the Polish Army and served as an artillery officer during the defense of Warsaw, after which he was taken prisoner and interned in Mecklenburg.[1] In 1941, he escaped, and made his way across Germany, mostly at night, until he finally arrived in Switzerland, where he spent the rest of the war as a student and instructor at ETH Zurich.[1] At ETH, he eventually earned a Doctorate in Technical Science, writing a thesis titled "Determination of Oxygen in Copper."[2]

Australia

In 1950, Przybylski emigrated to Australia. There, he spent five months as a manual laborer[5] before coming to the attention of Richard Woolley,[2] who recruited him to work at Mount Stromlo Observatory (part of the then-nascent Australian National University). Woolley subsequently awarded him a scholarship, and then became his thesis supervisor; in 1954,[6] Przybylski received the first doctorate bestowed by ANU,[7] for his thesis on the theory of stellar atmospheres.[4]

In 1957, Woolley was replaced as director of Mount Stromlo by Bart Bok, who mandated that the observatory's theoreticians also participate in direct observation; this led directly to Przybylski's discovery that HD101065 is a peculiar star.[4] Przybylski also was the first to attempt a fine analysis of a high dispersion spectrum of a star in the Magellanic Clouds.[4]

Later life

After retiring from Mount Stromlo, Przybylski lived at ANU's John XXIII college and studied botany, zoology, and geology gaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Sciences in 1984 at the age of 71, a year before his death.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Przybylski, Antoni (Bill) (1913–1985), by Ben Gascoigne, originally published in the ANU Reporter, October 1985; archived at Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; retrieved April 13, 2018
  2. 1 2 3 4 SCIENTIST HAS FOUND HIS NICHE IN AUSTRALIA, in the Canberra Times; published April 13, 1954; archived at Trove; retrieved April 13, 2018
  3. ↑ Przybylski, Antoni, by Thomas Hockey, in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers; published 2014 by Springer Verlag
  4. 1 2 3 4 HISTORY OF AUSTRALIAN ASTRONOMY: From the Sun to the Universe - The Woolley and Bok Directorships at Mount Stromlo, by A. R. Hyland and D. J. Faulkner; in Proceedings of the Astronomical Society of Australia volume 8 (2), 1989
  5. ↑ "Ditch Digger Now Satellite Authority", in the Catholic Advance (Wichita, Kansas); page 9; April 25, 1958
  6. ↑ “Research Begins.” The Making of The Australian National University: 1946-1996, by S.G. Foster and Margaret M. Varghese, ANU Press, 2009, pp. 83–112. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt24hdt9.8. Accessed 29 June 2021.
  7. ↑ Explorers of the Southern Sky: A History of Australian Astronomy, by Raymond Haynes; published June 27, 1996, by Cambridge University Press
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