| Ronald David Ekers | |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 September 1941 Victor Harbor |
| Residence | Australia |
| Citizenship | Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Fields | Astrophysics |
| Institutions | ATNF VLA |
| Alma mater | Australian National University |
| Notable students | Christophe Kotanyi |
| Notable awards | Flinders Medal |
Ronald David Ekers (born 18 September 1941) is an Australian radio astronomer. His fields of specialty include active galactic nuclei, cosmology, and radio astronomical techniques. Ron was born in Victor Bay in Australia. Ron was a very smart kid and showed interest in astronomy at a young age. When Ron was in his teenage years, he bought a telescope and recorded the position of stars. When he got older he went to work with the CSIRO.
He was director of the Very Large Array (VLA) from 1980 until 1987. From 1998 to 2003 he was Foundation Director of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. He is a past President of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and a member of the Advisory Board for the Peter Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize.
He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in 1993, a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2003 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005.
Ron Ekers graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1963 and received his PhD in astronomy at the Australian National University in 1967.