Professor Sir Francis Graham-Smith FRS celebrates hundredth birthday

The pioneering radio astronomer Professor Sir Francis Graham-Smith FRS celebrates his hundredth birthday this week on 25 April. His presidency of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1975 to 1977 coincided with the tercentenary of Royal Observatory Greenwich, where he was Director from 1975 until 1981, during which time the radio astronomer made a major contribution to optical astronomy by establishing the Isaac Newton group of UK telescopes on La Palma in the Canary Islands. He succeeded Sir Bernard Lovell as Director of Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories at Jodrell Bank Observatory from 1981 to 1988. He was appointed the 13th Astronomer Royal from 1982 to 1990, and was knighted in 1986.