William McCrea (astronomer)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other persons named William McCrea, see William McCrea (disambiguation).
Sir William Hunter McCrea (13 December 1904 – April 25, 1999) was an Irish astronomer and mathematician.
Born in Dublin on December 13, 1904, he attended Trinity College, Cambridge and was later appointed a lecturer of mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. He also served as reader and assistant professor at Imperial College London. In 1936 he became head of the mathematics department at the Queen's University of Belfast. After serving in the war, he joined the mathematics department at Royal Holloway College in 1944 (the McCrea Building on Royal Holloway's campus is named after him). In 1965, McCrea created the astronomy centre of the physics department at the University of Sussex.
McCrea was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 1961 to 1963 and president of Section A of the British Association for the Advancement of Science from 1965 to 1966. He was knighted in 1985.
He won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1976.
McCrea died on April 25, 1999.
[edit] External links
- College mourns Professor Sir William McCrea
- University Sussex obituary from The Times
