Background
Gerard Kuiper was born on December 7, 1905 in Harencarspel, Netherlands. He was the son of Gerard Kuiper and Anna de Vries.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Telescopes-Gerard-P-Kuiper/dp/137817142X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=137817142X
Gerard Kuiper was born on December 7, 1905 in Harencarspel, Netherlands. He was the son of Gerard Kuiper and Anna de Vries.
Interested in science from an early age, Kuiper enrolled in the astronomy program at the University of Leiden, where his instructors included astronomer Ejnar Hertzsprung and physicist Paul Ehrenfest. He earned Bachelor of Science in 1927 and became an assistant in the university observatory the following year, a position he held until he received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1933.
Kuiper served as a member of the Dutch solar eclipse expedition to Sumatra in 1929.
Upon completing his doctorate, Kuiper went to the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton, California, as a research fellow. Two years later, in 1935, he accepted an instructorship at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachussets, and, in 1936, he became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago. Kuiper's duties at Chicago focused on the university's Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, which he later directed in the periods 1947-1949 and 1957-1960. He continued research on double stars, which he had begun at Leiden, and on the luminosity-mass relationship of main-sequence stars, publishing a classic paper on the latter topic in 1938.
Kuiper became involved in war-related research in 1943, the year he attained the rank of full professor. He joined Harvard's Radio Research Laboratory and later served as an operations analyst with Eighth Air Force headquarters in England. At the end of the war, he participated in the "Alsos" mission to survey German scientific developments.
Kuiper continued to study astronomy as time permitted, although his interest was rapidly shifting from stellar to planetary research. During the winter of 1943-1944, he visited the McDonald Observatory in Texas to conduct spectrographic studies of the major planets and their satellites.
Following World War II Kuiper devoted himself to planetary research.
During the closing months of 1959 Kuiper had found himself burdened by administrative duties and clashes with Yerkes astronomers who resented the lunar and planetary focus of the observatory. He soon realized that the best solution to his various difficulties would be a separate institute for lunar and planetary studies. The Southwest appeared to be an ideal location for this facility, because of the region's clear, steady air and the recently announced selection of Kitt Peak in southern Arizona as the site for a national observatory. The anticipated growth of the astronomy program at the University of Arizona in Tucson provided an additional incentive. In January 1960, the university agreed to house Kuiper and his staff in the newly created Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. As Kuiper directed the move to Arizona, another important chapter in his career began. In May 1960, he was asked to serve on the Planetary and Interplanetary Sciences Subcommittee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This appointment began an association with the space agency that greatly benefited the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. In 1961, NASA provided funding for staff expansion research projects, and instruments to propel the laboratory into a prominent position in the rapidly growing space program. Three years later Kuiper received a grant of more than one million dollars for a space sciences building on campus to house the laboratory and related programs.
Kuiper's active involvement with specific NASA missions began in 1961, when he joined the committees planning the Ranger and Surveyor lunar probes. The Ranger program had many early problems, leading to the failure of the first five probes and a major reorganization in 1963. Kuiper accepted the position of chief experimenter and directed the successful redesign of the spacecraft.
Having established the facility as a leading part of the American space program, Kuiper retired as director of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in July 1973. Among his many other activities, Kuiper had long engaged in site surveys for new observatories. He conducted early surveys of Cerro Tololo in Chile and Mauna Kea in Hawaii, both of which became major observatories in the 1970's. In the week before Christmas in 1973, Kuiper traveled to Mexico to conduct an aerial survey of possible observatory sites around Guadalajara and to tape two television programs on astronomy.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
On June 20, 1936 Kuiper married Sarah Parker Fuller; they had two children.