Hogg, Frank Scott

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Frank Scott Hogg (1904-1951) was a faculty member in the Department of Astronomy who served as Department Head and Director of the David Dunlap Observatory (DDO) from 1946 to 1951. He was born in Preston, Ontario, and educated at the University of Toronto (BA 1926) and Harvard University (AM 1928, PhD 1929); his was the first PhD granted in Astronomy by Harvard. While at Harvard, he married Helen Battles Sawyer, who became a distinguished University of Toronto faculty member, and Canada's best-known and most beloved astronomer. Frank held a traveling fellowship in 1929-30, a research associateship at Amherst College in 1930-31, then took a position at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Victoria BC in 1931. He joined the University of Toronto in 1934 as Lecturer, was promoted to Assistant Professor in 1936, Associate Professor in 1942, and Professor and Head in 1946. He died in 1951 of heart failure at the young age of 46.

His research was on the spectroscopic measurement of the radial (line-of-sight) velocities of the stars, using the Doppler effect. He continued this research through the war years, when many of the other staff members were engaged in the war effort (he was prevented from doing so by health problems).

He also provided outstanding service to both his local community, and to the wider astronomical community. He served as President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (RASC) in 1941-42, and as assistant to the Editor (C.A. Chant) of the Journal of the RASC and of its annual Observers Handbook. He published dozens of reviews and notes in the JRASC. He was also active in the American Astronomical Society, and the International Astronomical Union. He wrote a weekly column on astronomy for the Toronto Daily Star which, after his death, was continued by Helen for over 30 years.

References

Chant, C.A. (1951), Frank Scott Hogg (1904-1951), Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, 45, 1.

http://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/researchers/fond-listings/frank-scott-hogg