astronomy

Ronald Ekers

Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers rather than just read about it. In short: Ronald David Ekers (born 18 September 1941) FRS FAA is an Australian radio astronomer. His fields of specialty include the study of active galactic nuclei, cosmology, and radio astronomy techniques.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Ronald David Ekers (born 18 September 1941) FRS FAA is an Australian radio astronomer. His fields of specialty include the study of active galactic nuclei, cosmology, and radio astronomy techniques. Ron Ekers was born in Victor Harbor, South Australia. He showed interest in astronomy at a young age. Ron Ekers graduated from the University of Adelaide in 1963 and received his PhD in astronomy at the Australian National University (ANU) in 1967. His postdoctoral supervisor at ANU was the astronomer John Gatenby Bolton. After graduating from ANU, his first postdoctoral studies were performed at Caltech, during which time Richard P. Feynman and Fred Hoyle were active. He was director of the Very Large Array (VLA) from 1980 until 1987. From 1988 to 2003 he was foundation director of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. In 2002 he was awarded a prestigious Federation Fellowship. He is a past president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) (2003–2006) and a member of the advisory board for the Peter Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize.

Honours and awards He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, a Foreign Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993, a Foreign Member of the American Philosophical Society in 2003, a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2005, and a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences in 2018.

2014 Grote Reber Gold Medal for innovative and significant contributions to radio astronomy 2005 Matthew Flinders Medal and Lecture, Australian Academy of Science 1993 Centenary Medal (Australia)

Publications Ekers has published over 460 academic papers and has an h-index of 79. He has also published the following books:

"Joe Pawsey and the Founding of Australian Radio Astronomy", by W.M. Goss, Clair Hooker, and Ronald D. Ekers (2023). "The Square Kilometre Array: A Science Mega-Project in the Making, 1990-2012", by Richard T. Schilizzi, Ronald D. Ekers, Peter E. Dewdney, and Philip Crosby (2024) "SETI 2020: A Roadmap for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence" by Ronald D. Ekers, D. Kent Cullers, and John Billingham (2002)

References

External links Ron Ekers' homepage Interview with Ron Ekers on Australian National Radio Interview for the Australian Astronomers Oral History Project

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ronald Ekers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers

In research: Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers 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: Ronald Ekers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1941 births, 20th-century Australian astronomers, 21st-century Australian astronomers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ronald Ekers 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Ronald Ekers” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Ronald Ekers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ronald Ekers in simple terms?

Ronald David Ekers (born 18 September 1941) FRS FAA is an Australian radio astronomer. His fields of specialty include the study of active galactic nuclei, cosmology, and radio astronomy techniques.

Why does Ronald Ekers 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 Ronald Ekers?

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 Ronald Ekers.