17 Facts About Bernard Lovell

Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was an English physicist and radio astronomer.

Bernard Lovell was the first director of Jodrell Bank Observatory, from 1945 to 1980.

Bernard Lovell studied physics at the University of Bristol obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in 1934, and a PhD in 1936 for his work on the electrical conductivity of thin films.

Bernard Lovell worked in the cosmic ray research team at the University of Manchester until the outbreak of the Second World War.

At the beginning of the war, Bernard Lovell published his first book, Science and Civilization.

In June 1942, following the crash in England of a Halifax bomber on a flight to demonstrate the H2S, Bernard Lovell aided in the recovery of the H2S's highly secret cavity magnetron from the plane's wreckage.

Bernard Lovell moved his equipment to a more remote location, one which was free from such electrical interference, and where he established the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Goostrey in Cheshire.

Bernard Lovell was later able to determine the orbits of meteors in annual meteor showers to show they were in solar orbit and not of interstellar origin.

In 2009, Bernard Lovell claimed he had been the subject of a Cold War assassination attempt during a 1963 visit to the Soviet Deep-Space Communication Centre.

Bernard Lovell alleged that his hosts tried to kill him with a lethal radiation dose because he was head of the Jodrell Bank space telescope when it was being used as part of an early warning system for Soviet nuclear attacks.

Bernard Lovell wrote a full account of the incident which, at his determination, was only published after his death.

In 1958, Bernard Lovell was invited by the BBC to deliver the annual Reith Lectures, a series of six radio broadcasts called The Individual and the Universe, in which he examined the history of enquiry into the Solar System and the origin of the universe.

Bernard Lovell chose the subject "Radio Astronomy and the Structure of the Universe".

Bernard Lovell was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Beyond professional recognition, Bernard Lovell has a secondary school named after him in Oldland Common, Bristol, which he officially opened.

In later life Bernard Lovell was physically very frail; he lived in quiet retirement in the countryside, surrounded by music, his books and a vast garden filled with trees he planted many decades before.

Bernard Lovell died at home in Swettenham, Cheshire on 6 August 2012.