NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY ARCHIVES

H. I. (Doc) Ewen

"Doc Ewen: The Horn, HI, and other events in U.S. Radio Astronomy" is a Web resource describing H.I. (Doc) Ewen's work from 1948 through the 1990s. Written by Ewen between 2003 and 2005, and illustrated with many photos and diagrams from his collection, the pages describe the detection of the HI line in 1951, early US radio astronomy history, including the building of the Harvard 24- and 60-foot antennas and the founding of NRAO, developments in millimeter and radiometric instrumentation in the 1970s through the 1990s, and Doc Ewen's continuing work in radiometry.

Working with E.M. Purcell at Harvard in 1951, Ewen detected radiation from galactic hydrogen at 1420 Mc/sec. From 1952-1958 he was Co-Director of the Harvard Radio Astronomy Program; during that time he was a member of the committees that recommended establishment by the National Science Foundation of a national facility for radio astronomy, and also recommended Green Bank WV as the best site for what became National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Between 1952 and 1958 he was CEO of both the Ewen Knight and Ewen Dae Corporations, he was Executive VP of Millitech Corporation from 1989-1992, VP Special Projects at Millitech from 1993-2000, President of EK Associates beginning in 1992, and Technical Operations Director of Special Projects LLC beginning in 2004.

Ewen died on October 8, 2015 at the age of 93.

Preferred citation for Doc Ewen: The Horn, HI, and other events in U.S. Radio Astronomy: National Radio Astronomy Observatory/Associated Universities, Inc. Archives, H.I. (Doc) Ewen, http://www.nrao.edu/archives/Ewen/ewen.shtml. After the initial citation, abbreviations may be used: NRAO/AUI Archives, Ewen. Please note that NRAO does not have publication rights for many of the photographs used by Ewen.

Related Material: See also the Papers of Woodruff T. Sullivan III, which include a 135 minute oral interview with Ewen conducted in 1979.