astronomy

Roger Charlier

Roger Charlier is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Roger Charlier rather than just read about it. In short: Roger Henri Louise Lievin Constance Charlier (10 November 1921 – 16 September 2018) was a Belgian resistance fighter, member of the prosecuting team at the Nuremberg trials, and oceanographer. His marriage to American Captain Marie Helen Glennon and administrative difficulties regarding his residency in the US was dramatised in the film I Was a Male War Bride, with Cary Grant as Charlier.

Key takeaways

Roger Charlier belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Roger Charlier to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Roger Charlier from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Roger Henri Louise Lievin Constance Charlier (10 November 1921 – 16 September 2018) was a Belgian resistance fighter, member of the prosecuting team at the Nuremberg trials, and oceanographer. His marriage to American Captain Marie Helen Glennon and administrative difficulties regarding his residency in the US was dramatised in the film I Was a Male War Bride, with Cary Grant as Charlier.

Early life and Second World War Charlier's paternal grandparents were from Wallonia and his maternal grandparents were from Flanders. He started out as a teacher at a secondary school in the early 1940s. During the Second World War, he was commissioned on 15 February 1945 and demobilised on 31 October 1945. He was briefly imprisoned by the Germans. After his release, he commanded a unit in Limburg. Working for the Belgian Ministry of Justice, he became a member of the prosecuting team for the Belgian and Luxembourg delegation to the Nuremberg trials, interrogating, among others, Eggert Reeder and Alexander von Falkenhausen. Furthermore, he was a newspaper correspondent, including an editor at De Volksgazet (1949).

Career

He became deputy-director to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), managing a refugee camp in Ansbach, near Nuremberg. Around this time, he met and married American army nurse Captain Marie Helen Glennon. This marriage was highly uncommon, since more American male soldiers married European women. The American consul in Frankfurt advised Charlier that "spouse" could mean groom as well as bride, which helped to regularise his situation. Charlier wrote a book about this episode of his life under the pen name Henri Rochard. The Hollywood film I Was a Male War Bride was based on this autobiography. However, the famous scene where Charlier, played by Cary Grant, impersonates a female army nurse, was not historically correct. Glennon died after ten years of the marriage. The couple had no children. Later, Charlier married Patricia Mary Simonet, with whom he had two children. The largest part of his almost eight-decade–long career was marked by teaching and research activities in oceanography and earth sciences. In 1958, he was doing research in energy of the oceans (waves, tides, salt concentrations) on the ship of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the RV Calypso, under the lead of Jacques Bourcart. Charlier was early in drawing attention to global warming, promoting sustainable energy production and equitable use of marine resources. Charlier has taught as a professor, visiting professor, and research scholar at many universities in the US, France, and Belgium, including at Finch College (1958–1983), Northeastern Illinois University (1961–1986), and the University of Bordeaux (1972–1975). He retired in 1989, but wrote several publications during his retirement. He died on 16 September 2018 in Etterbeek, Belgium.

Publications

Books Roger H. Charlier (1958). Antwerpen: die Bedeutung der belgischen Handelsmetropole im westeuropaeischen Raum. Ein Beitrage sur [sic] historischen und wirtschaftlichen Stadtgeographie. Maplegrove Press. Roger H. Charlier; Christian P. De Meyer (10 April 2006). Coastal Erosion: Response and Management. Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-49405-8. R.H. Charlier; J.R. Justus (17 September 1993). Ocean Energies: Environmental, Economic and Technological Aspects of Alternative Power Sources. Elsevier. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-0-08-087094-6. R. H. Charlier; Charles W. Finkl (8 February 2009). Ocean Energy: Tide and Tidal Power. Springer Science & Business Media. pp. 9–. ISBN 978-3-540-77932-2. Roger H. Charlier (1955). Overzicht van de geografie der Floridaanse heide. Oudheidkundige Kring. Roger Henri Charlier (1960). The Gifted, a National Resource; with an Annotated Bibliography. Bureau of Educational Research, College of Education, University of Minnesota.

Journal articles Charlier, Roger H. (2003). "A "sleeper" awakes: tidal current power". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 7 (6): 515–529. Bibcode:2003RSERv...7..515C. doi:10.1016/S1364-0321(03)00079-0. ISSN 1364-0321. Charlier, R. H.; Morand, P.; Finkl, C. W.; Thys, A. (2006). "Green tides on the Brittany coasts". 2006 IEEE US/EU Baltic International Symposium. pp. 1–13. doi:10.1109/BALTIC.2006.7266128. ISBN 978-1-5090-0212-2. S2CID 33557719. Charlier, Roger H.; Chaineux, Marie Claire P.; Morcos, Selim (2005). "Panorama of the History of Coastal Protection" (PDF). Journal of Coastal Research. 211: 79–111. doi:10.2112/03561.1. ISSN 0749-0208. S2CID 129044569. Charlier, Roger H.; Chaineux, Marie-Claire P. (2009). "The Healing Sea: A Sustainable Coastal Ocean Resource: Thalassotherapy". Journal of Coastal Research. 254: 838–856. doi:10.2112/08A-0008.1. ISSN 0749-0208. S2CID 40215043.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Roger Charlier

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Roger Charlier claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Roger Charlier before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Roger Charlier ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Roger Charlier

In research: Roger Charlier appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Roger Charlier in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Roger Charlier is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1921 births, 2018 deaths, Belgian emigrants to the United States, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Roger Charlier outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Roger Charlier in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Roger Charlier means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Roger Charlier out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Roger Charlier in simple terms?

Why does Roger Charlier matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Roger Charlier?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Roger Charlier.