Caltech Library News

Stanley papers collection guide online

The Gordon J. Stanley papers were donated to the Caltech Archives in February 2012 by the Stanley Family Trust. This small, yet unique, collection covers Stanley's research involvement in radio astronomy, both in Australia and the United States.

Gordon Stanley and John Murray at OVRO. Photo by J. A. Roberts. Photo ID 10.21.2-30

Stanley was born in Cambridge, New Zealand on July 1, 1921. He became an engineer by training and was among a group of scientists who in 1944 joined the Radiophysics Laboratory of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Sydney, Australia. He later worked at the Dover Heights field station and was a key contributor along with John Bolton, Bruce Slee, Dick McGee, Joe Pawsey and others to early radio astronomy.

Gordon Stanley operating the jack to lower the antenna onto the new station. Photo by J. A. Roberts. Photo ID OVRO10.21.1-37

In mid-1955, Stanley left Australia and followed his close colleague, John Bolton, to Caltech. They began searching for a suitable site for Caltech's new radio observatory. Stanley found the ideal location in Owens Valley, and along with Bolton and Bruce Rule, Caltech's Chief Engineer, designed the first radio interferometer operating above a few hundred megahertz.

130-foot radio telescope dish under contruction. Photo ID OVRO2.5-2

This interferometer became fully operational in 1960 and shortly thereafter Bolton returned to Australia. Stanley was subsequently appointed Director of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, a position he held until his retirement in 1975.