Person: Sampson, Ralph Allen

Ralph Sampson was an Irish astronomer who worked on the theory of the motions of Jupiter's four Galilean satellites.

Only at age fourteen did Ralph's formal education begin when he entered the Liverpool Institute.
After two years as a lecturer in mathematics in London, Sampson returned to Cambridge in 1891 when he became the first holder of the Isaac Newton Studentship in Astronomy and Physical Optics.
Sampson used a series of accurate observations from Harvard College Observatory to amend the existing theory of the satellite orbits, but the disagreement between theory and observation persisted.
Sampson also did a superb job editing one volume of the papers of his former tutor, John Couch Adams.
The whole work was published in several volumes between 1896 and 1900, with Sampson's volume appearing in 1900.
In 1910 Sampson was appointed to a professorship at the University of Edinburgh and also as Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
More significant was that during Sampson's presidency, women were admitted as fellows on equal terms to men.
Sampson received many honours for his contributions.

Born 25 June 1866, Schull, Co Cork, Ireland. Died 7 November 1939, Bath, England.

View full biography at MacTutor

Astronomy, Origin Ireland

Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive