American radio engineer who was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from the present Illinois Institute of Technology in 1933. He worked as an engineer for several radio manufacturers in Chicago over the period 1933-47 during which he conducted his initial researches in radio astronomy. His interest in radio astronomy began after he read Jansky's 1932 and 1933 articles. He built the world's first radio telescope (a 31 foot tiltable paraboloid) in his backyard in Wheaton, Illinois in the four months from June to September, 1937. His antenna is currently located at NRAO in Greenbank, West Virginia.

Reber attempted detection at 9 and 33 cm, but without result. Then, he tried 187 cm. At this wavelength, however, he was forced to observe at times of day in which no automobile ignitions were sparking. He detected emission from the Milky Way Galaxy, which encouraged him to build an improved receiver in 1941. With this, he detected the sun and a strong source in Cassiopeia. He published contour maps. He also achieved successful detection with a 62.5 cm receiver (Sullivan 1984, p. 43-66).

From 1947 to 1951, Reber was employed at the National Bureau of Standards, but beginning 1951, he became self-employed with his research in Hawaii and Tasmania, Australia being supported by the Research Corporation. His interests included mapping of the background radiation at 1-2 MHz, cosmic ray studies, dating of Aboriginal sites, and botanical studies. He received an honorary Sc.D. degree from Ohio State University in 1962, the Bruce Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in 1962, and the Jackson-Gwilt Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1983 (Sullivan 1984, p. 412).

Jansky

Additional biographies: Bruce Medalists, Bonn