W. Bond

65.4N

4.5W

156

William Cranch ~ (1789-1859), American clockmaker and astronomer; first director of the Harvard Observatory. In 1848, together with his son, George Phillips Bond (q.v.), he discovered Saturn's moon Hyperion.

Walker

26.0S

162.2W

32

Joseph A. ~ (1921-1966), American test pilot; as Chief Research Pilot for NASA during the mid-1960s, he made the first X-15 flight on 25 March 1960, and was the first man to pilot the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) that was used to develop piloting and operational techniques for Moon landings. An excellent biography of Walker may be found on the NASA website.

Wallace

20.3N

8.7W

26

Alfred Russel ~ (1823-1913); British surveyor, botanist and natural historian.

Wallach

4.9N

32.3E

6

Otto ~ (1847-1931), German chemist; he received the Nobel Prize in 1910 for his work on alicyclic compounds.

Walther
or Walter

33.1S

1.0E

128

Bernard Walther, or Walter (1430-1504), German astronomer.

Wan-Hoo

9.8S

138.8W

52

Wan-hu, or ~ (?-c. 1500) visionary Chinese rocket pioneer; legend holds that Wan-hu devised a wicker chair with two kites and 47 large gunpowder rockets attached to it which he purported would propel him into the heavens. The rockets were ignited simultaneously by 47 assistants, after which came a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the flying chair and Wan-Hu were gone.

Wargentin

49.6S

60.2W

84

Pehr Wilhelm ~ (1717-1783), Swedish astronomer and statistician.

Warner

4.0S

87.3E

35

Worcester Reed ~ (1846-1929), American inventor and mechanical engineer; designed the 36-inch telescope for the University of California Lick Observatory and later built telescopes for use in Canada and Argentina. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers annually bestows an award in his name for outstanding contributions to the permanent literature of engineering.

Waterman

25.9S

128.0E

76

Alan T. ~ (1892-1967), American physicist, first director of the National Science Foundation; in December 1963, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson awarded him the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The U.S. Congress established an annual award in his honor to recognize an outstanding young researcher in any field of science or engineering supported by the NSF.

Watson

62.6S

124.5W

62

James Craig ~ (1838-1880), Canadian-born American astronomer; director of the Detroit Observatory (1863-1879) and founding director of the University of Wisconsin's Washburn Observatory (1879-1880). Discovered 22 asteroids, including six in one year.

Watt

49.5S

48.6E

66

James ~ (1736-1819), Scottish engineer and inventor; his refinement of the steam engine helped bring about the Industrial Revolution.

Watts

8.9N

46.3E

15

Chester Burleigh ~ (1889-1971), American astronomer.

Webb

0.9S

60.0E

21

Reverend Thomas William ~ (1806-1885), British astronomer; known as "the father of amateur astronomy."

Weber

50.4N

123.4W

42

Wilhelm Eduard ~ (1804-1891), German physicist and astronomer; his vital work on the ratio between the electrodynamic and electrostatic units of charge was crucial to Maxwell in his electromagnetic theory of light.

Wegener

45.2N

113.3W

88

Alfred Lothar ~ (1880-1930), German geophysicist and meteorologist; first scientist to postulate the theory of "continental drift." His "The Origin of Continents and Oceans" (1915) is the landmark work on this subject.

Weierstrass

1.3S

77.2E

33

Karl Theodor Wilhelm ~ (1815-1897), German scholar and mathematician.

Weigel

58.2S

38.8W

35

Erhard ~ (1625-1699), German mathematician and philosopher.

Weinek

27.5S

37.0E

32

Ladislaus ~ (1848-1913), Czech astronomer; ninth director of the Klementinum observatory in Prague. Collaborated with Kuestner in the discovery of polar motion; published a lunar atlas based on photographs from the Lick Observatory.

Weiss,
or Weiß

31.8S

19.5W

66

Edmund ~ (1837-1917), Czech-born German astronomer, mathematician and physicist.

Werner

28.0S

3.3E

70

Johann ~ (1468-1528), German astronomer, mathematician and geographer.

Wexler

69.1S

90.2E

51

Harry ~ (1911-1962), American meteorologist; as research director, he helped guide the creation of the Mauna Loa Observatory (Hawaii).

Weyl

17.5N

120.2W

108

Hermann (Peter) ~ (1885-1955), German mathematician; evolved the concept of continuous groups using matrix representations, as well as creating the modern science of quantum mechanics.

Whewell

4.2N

13.7E

13

William ~ (1794-1866), British moral philosopher, mineralogist, mystic, educator and polymath; widely regarded as the father of the modern philosophy of science.

White

44.6S

158.3W

39

Lt. Col. Edward Higgins ~ II (1930-1967), American astronaut, Air Force fighter pilot and test pilot; among the second group of men selected as astronauts. First American to "walk in space" during Gemini IV mission (1965). Perished in a fire aboard Apollo 1 during a launch pad training session along with crewmates Virgil I. Grissom and Roger Chaffee (qq.v.).

Wichmann

7.5S

38.1W

10

Moritz Ludwig Georg ~ (1821-1859), German astronomer.

Widmanstätten

6.1S

85.5E

46

Aloys B. von ~ (1753-1849), German physicist.

Wiechert

84.5S

165.0E

41

Emil ~ (1861-1928), Prussian physicist and geophysicist; among his accomplishments were advances in the science of seismology.

Wiener

40.8N

146.6E

120

Norbert ~ (1894-1964), American mathematician; first proposed the building of digital computers in 1940. His work in the area of communication theory led to the development of cybernetics, the study of control and communication in animals and machines, and also formed the basis for the branch of artificial intelligence research based on the processes of the human mind.

Wildt

9.0N

75.8E

11

Rupert ~ (1905-1976), German-born American educator, astronomer and astrophysicist.

Wilhelm

43.4S

20.4W

106

Wilhelm IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel (1532-1592), German nobleman, astronomer and patron of the sciences.

Wilkins

29.4S

19.6E

57

Hugh Percy ~ (1896-1960), British lunar observer and cartographer.

Williams

42.0N

37.2E

36

Arthur Stanley ~ (1861-1938), British astronomer.

Wilsing

21.5S

155.2W

73

Johannes ~ (1856-1943), German astrophysicist and astronomer; a pioneer of radio astronomy, with his colleague Julius Scheiner (q.v.).

Wilson

69.2S

42.4W

69

Alexander ~  (1714-1786), Scottish astronomer and type designer;
Also Charles T.R. ~ (1869-1959), Scottish physicist, inventor of the cloud chamber; awarded Nobel Prize in 1927 for devising method of perceiving paths taken by electrically charged particles.

Winkler

42.2N

179.0W

22

Johannes ~  (1897-1947), German rocketry scientist.

Winlock

35.6N

105.6W

64

Joseph ~  (1826-1875), American astronomer and educator; a charter member of the National Academy of Sciences, he succeeded George Bond (q.v.) as director of Harvard College Observatory.

Winthrop

10.7S

44.4W

17

John ~ (1714-1779), American scientist and astronomer; sometimes called the founder of seismology, was the first important scientist to teach at Harvard.

Wohler

38.2S

31.4E

27

Friedrich ~ (1800-1882), German chemist, student of Berzelius (q.v.); his synthesis of urea, the first synthesis of an organic compound from inorganic material, opened a new era in organic chemistry and contributed greatly to the theory of isomers.

Wolf

22.7S

16.6W

25

Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius ~ (1863-1932), German astronomer; a pioneer in astrophotography, he founded and directed the Königstuhl Observatory at Heidelberg and served as professor of astrophysics. Discovered the first Trojan asteroid, Achilles, as well as thousands of nebulae and galaxies, and suggested the idea of the modern planetarium.

Wollaston

30.6N

46.9W

10

William Hyde ~ (1766-1828), British chemist, physicist and optician; developed a method for the processing of platinum ore, which led him to the discovery of the chemical elements palladium and rhodium.

Woltjer

45.2N

159.6W

46

Jan ~ (1891-1946), Dutch astronomer.

Wood

43.0N

120.8W

78

Robert Williams ~ (1868-1955), American physicist and optician; the "Wood Light," more commonly known as the "black light" for generating ultraviolet radiation, was named for him. Developed a color photography process, as well as methods of infrared and ultraviolet photography.

Wr'oblewski

24.0S

152.8E

21

Sigmund von ~ (1845-1888), Polish physicist.

Wright

31.6S

86.6W

39

Frederick E. ~ (1878-1953), American astronomer;
Also Thomas ~ (1711-1786), British astronomer; suggested that nebulae could be distant systems similar the our galaxy.

Wrottesley

23.9S

56.8E

57

John ~, the second Baron Wrottesley (1798-1867), English astronomer.

Wurzelbauer

33.9S

15.9W

88

Johann Philipp von ~ (1651-1725), German astronomer.

Wyld

1.4S

98.1E

93

James H. ~ (1913-1953), American rocketry scientist.

Xenophanes

57.5N

82.0W

125

~ of Colophon (570-475 BCE), Greek elegiac and satirical poet and philosopher.

Xenophon

22.8S

122.1E

25

~ (c. 430-354 B.C.), Greek natural philosopher and historian.

Yablochkov

60.9N

128.3E

99

Pavel Nikolayevich ~ (1847-1894), Russian electrical engineer and inventor; devised the first arc lamp.

Yakovkin

54.5S

78.8W

37

A. A. ~ (1887-1974), Soviet astronomer and selenologist.

Yamamoto

58.1N

160.9E

76

Issei ~ (1889-1959), Japanese astronomer; director of the Kwasan Observatory, renowned observer of meteors. As a professor at Kyoto University, he founded  the Tenmon Doukoukai (Astronomy Association) in 1920, which became the Oriental Astronomical Association in 1932.

Yangel

17.0N

4.7E

8

Mikhail Kuzmich ~ (1911-1971), Soviet educator and rocketry scientist; served as chief designer at KB Yuzhnoe, a major developer of rocket and space technology, from 1954-1971.

Yerkes

14.6N

51.7E

36

Charles Tyson ~ (1837-1905), American investment banker and traction magnate; financed the building of the Chicago streetcar system and the London Underground. Provided funding for the building of the Yerkes Observatory at the University of Chicago.

Yoshi

24.6N

11.0E

1

Japanese male name.

Young

41.5S

50.9E

71

Thomas ~ (1773-1829), British physicist; determined the wavelengths of members of the visible spectrum using diffraction experiments.

Zach

60.9S

5.3E

70

Freiherr Franz Xaver von ~ (1754-1832), German astronomer (born in Hungary); court astronomer at Gotha. He helped organize the first international scientific program, along with Schröter, Olbers, Harding, von Ende and Gildemeister (qq.v.), to search for a planet between Mars and Jupiter.

Zagut

32.0S

22.1E

84

Abraham ben-Samuel ~ (?-c. 1450), Spanish-Jewish astronomer.

Zähringer

5.6N

40.2E

11

Josef ~ (1929-1970), German physicist.

Zanstra

2.9N

124.7E

42

Herman ~ (1894-1972), Dutch-American theorist and astrophysicist; "Zanstra’s method," a method of measuring the temperature of a hot photoionizing star in a gaseous nebula, was a pioneering work in quantum mechanics.

Zasyadko

3.9N

94.2E

11

Alexander Dmitrievich ~ (1779-1837), Russian artillery engineer; developed techniques for mass production of rockets and led the formation of the first missile unit in the Russian army.

Zeeman

75.2S

133.6W

190

Pieter ~ (1865-1943), Dutch physicist; his discovery of the magnetic splitting of spectral lines earned him a Nobel Prize in physics (1902).

Zelinskii

28.9S

166.8E

53

Nikolai Dimitrievich ~ (1860-1953), Soviet academic and organic chemist; the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow is named in his honor.

Zeno

45.2N

72.9E

65

~ of Citium (c. 333-264 B.C.); Greek philosopher (born in Cyprus); founder of the Stoic school of philosophy.

Zernike

18.4N

168.2E

48

Frits ~ (1888-1966), Dutch mathematical physicist, optician and astronomer; his discovery of the phase-contrast phenomenon helped earn him the Nobel Prize in 1953.

Zhiritskii

24.8S

120.3E

35

Georgiy S. ~ (1893-1966), Soviet rocketry scientist.

Zhukovskii
or Zhukovskiy

7.8N

167.0W

81

Nikolay Egorovich ~ (1847-1921), Russian physicist, educator and mathematician; the founder of the Russian schools of hydromechanics and aeromechanics, he is also regarded as the father of Russian aviation.

Zinner

26.6N

58.8W

4

Ernst ~ (1886-1970), German astronomer and horologist; professor of astronomy at the University of Munich. Renowned collector of rare books on astronomy, horology (the science of measuring time) and the history of science.

Zola 1

0.8S

87.0E

17

Emile ~ (1840-1902), French novelist and critic; founder of naturalist movement in literature.

Zollner

8.0S

18.9E

47

Johann Karl Friedrich ~ (1834-1882), German astrophysicist and astronomer.

Zsigmondy

59.7N

104.7W

65

Richard Adolf ~ (1865-1929), Austrian chemist; awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1925 for his work on the heterogeneous nature of colloidal solutions.

Zucchius

61.4S

50.3W

64

Niccolo Zucchi, S.J., or ~ (1586-1670), Italian Jesuit, mathematician and astronomer; first to use an eye lens to view the image produced by a concave mirror in a reflecting telescope.

Zupus

17.2S

52.3W

38

Giovanni Battista Zupi, or ~  (c. 1590-1650), Italian astronomer.

Zwicky

15.4S

168.1E

150

Fritz ~ (1898-1974), Swiss-American astrophysicist; as professor of astronomy at Caltech, he was first to consider gravitational lensing by extragalactic objects.