František Nušl was a Czechoslovakian astronomer and mathematician.
Education
After high school in Jindřichův Hradec, he studied physics and astronomy in Prague, where he met among others the future president of Czechoslovakia, T. G. Masaryk, the linguist January Gebauer and the historian Josef Goll, with whom he collaborated on Otto"s encyclopedia.
Career
After 1893 he taught maths on various high schools and met with J. J. Frič, a manufacturer of precision instruments. In 1898 Frič bought a large piece of land in Ondřejov, 50 km south-east from Prague, where they established an astronomical observatory. Since 1904 Nušl was assistant professor of astronomy at the Charles University of Prague and after 1908 professor of mathematics at the Czechoslovakian Technical University in Prague (ČVUT).
In 1917, Nušl was among the founders of the Czechoslovakian Astronomical Society, whose president he was to became later.
In 1928 Frič dedicated the well-equipped Ondřejov Observatory to the Charles university and to the Czechoslovak state and Nušl became its first head He was a member and temporarily vice-chairman of the International Astronomical Union and participated in establishing the popular Štefánik"s Observatory on the Petřín hill in Prague.
Membership
Nušl was a gifted musician, he played viola and was member of a Prague chorus.