American Philosophical Society
Member History

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Residency
International (1)
Resident (1)
Class
1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences[X]
Subdivision
101. Astronomy[X]
1Name:  Dr. Ronald D. Ekers
 Institution:  CSIRO, Australia Telescope National Facility
 Year Elected:  2003
 Class:  1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
 Subdivision:  101. Astronomy
 Residency:  International
 Living? :   Living
 Birth Date:  1941
   
 
Professor Ron Ekers was appointed Foundation Director of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility in 1988 and he continued in this role until March 2003, when he took up his Federation Fellowship. He graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1963 and gained his Ph.D. in astronomy at the Australian National University in 1967. His professional career has taken him to the California Institute of Technology, the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge, UK, the Kapteyn Laboratory in Groningen, The Netherlands, and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in New Mexico. He was director of the VLA, the major national radio telescope in the USA, from 1980 until 1987. He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Science and a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society. He is the president of the International Astronomical Union. Dr. Ekers's research interests include extragalactic astronomy, especially cosmology, galactic nuclei and radio astronomical techniques.
 
2Name:  Dr. Frank H. Shu
 Institution:  National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan
 Year Elected:  2003
 Class:  1. Mathematical and Physical Sciences
 Subdivision:  101. Astronomy
 Residency:  Resident
 Living? :   Deceased
 Birth Date:  1943
 Death Date:  April 22, 2023
   
 
In 2003 Frank Shu left his University Professor position at the University of California, Berkeley to become president of "Taiwan's MIT," National Tsing Hua University. In 2007, he returned to the University of California - this time UC San Diego. He initially made his reputation with the density wave theory of spiral arms in spiral galaxies (with C.C. Lin) and has developed a picture of how stars are formed in pressure waves in these gas clouds. His work on star formation today provides the basic framework guiding both theory and observation. More recently he has turned to the distribution of chondrules in meteorites to help understand the formation of planets from stellar disks. A particularly lucid lecturer, his text, The Physical Universe, is considered "the Feynman Lectures of astronomy." Dr. Shu was awarded the Shaw Prize in Astrophysics in 2009. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1987); the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (1992); the Academia Sinica; and the American Astronomical Society (president, 1994-96).
 
Election Year
2003[X]