[ASA] Vale Bruce Slee

[Virginia Kilborn]

Dear members,

It is with much sadness I relay the news of the passing of ASA Foundation member Bruce Slee.  Many of the community will have known Bruce, through his outstanding contribution to Australian astronomy.


Bruce's colleague Elaine Sadler had the following words to say on his passing:

Very saddened to report that our colleague Bruce Slee died last night at the age of 92. Bruce's passing comes only a day after the workshop "A Celebration: Bruce Slee and 70 Years of Radio Astronomy" that we held in Sydney to celebrate his long career.

Bruce was one of the pioneers of radio astronomy, and his 1949 Nature paper (with co-authors John Bolton and Gordon Stanley) announced the optical identification of the radio sources Centaurus A (NGC 5128), Virgo A (M87) and Taurus A (the Crab nebula). He continued to be active in astronomical research well into his 90s, and his most recent paper was published only a few months ago.

Bruce's grand-daughter Belinda has sent the following message:

"I was so proud of my grandfather when I saw that the workshop was being held. I had no idea but then again he often didn't tell us about these things as he is such a humble person. Unfortunately my grandfather passed away tonight in hospital. It has come very unexpectedly for us. Obviously at this stage we have no idea of any funeral arrangements we are just trying to get over the shock of it.
I know there are many people who would like to know of his passing so if you can please let them know it would be much appreciated."


Our sincere condolences to the family,  friends and colleagues of Bruce.


Regards,

Virginia

President, ASA


Virginia Kilborn
Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology
Swinburne University of Technology
Ph (w) +61 (0)3 9214 4380
WWW: http://bit.ly/24vsqSR

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.sydney.edu.au/pipermail/asa/attachments/20160819/ea7943e5/attachment.html>