Peter Alan Sweet

Peter Alan Sweet
Born 15 May 1921
Beckenham, Kent
Died 16 January 2005
Poole, Dorset
Citizenship British
Nationality British
Fields Astronomy
Mathematics
Institutions Ministry of Aircraft Production
Glasgow University
Alma mater Kingsbury County Grammar School
Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
Known for Sweet-Parker Reconnection
Eddington-Sweet Circulation

Peter Alan Sweet was Regius Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow from 1959 until his retirement in 1982. He was also Dean of the Faculty of Science 1973–1975.

Under Sweet's stewardship, the Department of Astronomy grew from 3 to 17 permanent staff. Sweet undertook the building of a new University Observatory located at Acre Road, Glasgow which opened in 1967. The department offices were moved to the top floor of the then new Mathematics Building in University Gardens, within the main University campus.

Sweet was educated at Kingsbury County Grammar School and Wrangler 1942 on a Major Open Scholarship in Maths at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. He worked as a Junior Scientific Officer at the Ministry of Aircraft Production from 1942 until the end of the Second World War. He took a position as a lecturer in Astronomy at Glasgow University in 1947. He then moved to become Assistant Director of the University of London Observatory from 1952 until his appointment to the Regius Chair in Glasgow in 1959.

References

    Academic offices
    Preceded by
    William Marshall Smart
    Regius Professor of Practical Astronomy
    at Glasgow University

    19591982
    Succeeded by
    John Campbell Brown


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