DATE: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:32:26 +1100 SUBJECT: Emeritus Professor John Davis It is my sad task to announce that Emeritus Professor John Davis passed away over the weekend. John was well known to many ASA members, having come to the University of Sydney in the early 1960's to join Robert Hanbury Brown and colleagues in developing the Narrabri Stellar Intensity Interferometer. The work of that instrument made fundamental contributions in stellar astrophysics that remain significant today. The development of stellar interferometry continued under John's leadership of the Sydney University Stellar Interferometer (SUSI). John's legacy is being carried forward by a new generation of staff and students who are expanding SUSI's capabilities and scientific output. John was widely recognised as a world leader in the long and technically difficult path of making modern optical stellar interferometry an observational technique of growing importance in modern astronomy. His contributions were recognised in 2005 with the ASA's Ellery Lectureship and in 2008 in a workshop, 'SUSI: Past, Present and Future', to mark his 75th birthday. The ASA offers its sympathy to his wife, Madeleine, and his family. There will be a funeral service at: Camelia Chapel Macquarie Park Crematorium (Corner Delhi and Plassey Roads, North Ryde) 2:30 pm, Friday 22 January 2010 John O'Byrne ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN O’BYRNE Chair, Academic Programs Committee Secretary, Astronomical Society of Australia Inc. Sydney Institute for Astronomy School of Physics | Faculty of Science THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm 568, Physics Annexe A29 | The University of Sydney | NSW | Australia | 2006 T +61 2 9351 3184 | F +61 2 9351 7726 E john.obyrne@sydney.edu.au | W http://sydney.edu.au/science/physics/ ~obyrne CRICOS 00026A This email plus any attachments to it are confidential. Any unauthorised use is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please delete it and any attachments. This email uses 100% recycled words and ideas. Do you really need to print it?