Bart Bok

Bartholomeus Jan "Bart" Bok (April 28, 1906 – August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer, teacher, and lecturer. He is best known for his work on the structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, and for the discovery of Bok globules, which are small, densely dark clouds of interstellar gas and dust that can be seen silhouetted against brighter backgrounds. Bok suggested that these globules may be in the process of contracting, before forming into stars.

Bok married fellow astronomer Priscilla Fairfield in 1929, and for the remainder of their lives, the two collaborated so closely on their astronomical work that the Royal Astronomical Society said "from that point on it is difficult and pointless to separate his achievements from hers". The Boks displayed such great mutual enthusiasm for explaining astronomy to the public that The Boston Globe described them in 1936 as "salesmen of the Milky Way". When he was asked by the editors of Who's Who in America to submit a statement concerning "Thoughts on My Life", he wrote, "I have been a happy astronomer for the past sixty years, wandering through the highways and byways of our beautiful Milky Way."

Bart Bok was an exceedingly popular personality in the field of astronomy, noted for his affability and humor. When asteroid 1983 Bok was named for him and his wife Priscilla, he thanked the International Astronomical Union for giving him "a little plot of land that I can retire to and live on."

Early life and studies 1906–1929

Bok was born in the small Dutch town of Hoorn, north of Amsterdam, to Jan Bok, who was a sergeant-major in the Dutch army, and Gesina Annetta (née van der Lee) Bok, but he spent a good deal of his childhood with his grandparents in the town of Haarlem, where he attended primary school. He attended high school in The Hague, excelling at mathematics and science, and he also told the story that this was where he met a Scoutmaster who introduced him to the night sky while on camping trips away from the city lights. After completing high school, he went on to study astronomy at Leiden and Groningen Universities.

Their marriage began a close scientific collaboration that would span the next four decades, in which the Royal Astronomical Society said "it is difficult and pointless to separate his achievements from hers". The writing of this book, begun in 1937, was shared equally – according to Bart:

Priscilla and I were working on the writing of the book on the Milky Way, and she had a little room upstairs where she did all her writing. We lived in Lexington at the time. The cleaning woman would say to her, "Upstairs you go, you've gotta go to work, don't just sit here and talk to me." And she worked very hard at it, and in the beginning we had eight chapters in the book. We agreed that I would write four chapters and she would write four chapters, and that we loved each other dearly, no problems. Then, after we had gone through this for about five or six months and the writing was getting under way we said, "Now, you take my chapters, I'll take yours, now we get a better homogeneous book." Well, Priscilla stood one day in front of the fireplace, saying, "If you want to change things that way, my part can go in the fireplace right now." She didn't do it. But that was really the most critical time that we ever had in our married life, trying to meld these two times four chapters into eight chapters. But I think it worked out, and later on we did much better. We had fun about it. But I tell you, the writing of a joint book is not always easy, if you've got strong feelings about it. This hypothesis was difficult to verify due to the observational difficulties of establishing what was happening inside a dense dark cloud that obscured all visible light emitted from within it, but after Bok's death his ideas were confirmed when analyses of near infrared observations published in 1990 confirmed that stars were being born inside Bok globules.

The Bok family also traveled to spend time setting up two international facilities on opposite sides of the world. During 1941, Bok helped to set up the Tonantzintla Observatory in Tonantzintla, Mexico. obtained funds from the Prime Minister of the time, Robert Menzies, for a new telescope at Stromlo, and established a field observatory at Siding Spring.

He was a pioneer in the use of electronic computers for astronomical observing, and the first person to use them for any purpose at the ANU: in February 1960 he had the first one installed in the observatory.

By the early 1960s, Mount Stromlo had developed into one of the leading facilities for observational astronomy in the southern hemisphere.

This did not leave much time for astronomy research; Priscilla spent many nights at the Stromlo telescopes observing and analyzing their data. This suited her greater interest in basic observations such as determining stellar positions and providing calibrated magnitudes. Overlapping with this, he also served as president of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) from 1972 to 1974.

Priscilla suffered a stroke in 1972; her health declined in the following years, and Bok resigned his positions with the IAU and the AAS in 1974 and dedicated himself to her care. She died of a heart attack in November 1975. The statement was published in The Humanist and copies were sent to every major newspaper in the US. This led to the formation of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now called the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry), of which he was a founding Fellow. In 2000, Bok was voted by readers of Skeptical Inquirer magazine as one of the "outstanding skeptics of the twentieth century". At a meeting of the executive council of CSI in Denver, Colorado in April 2011, Bok was selected for inclusion in CSI's Pantheon of Skeptics. The Pantheon of Skeptics was created by CSI to remember the legacy of deceased fellows of CSI and their contributions to the cause of scientific skepticism.

Bok continued as an emeritus professor at the University of Arizona, and he participated in or led several groups to view solar eclipses, including a trip to the eclipse near Bratsk in Siberia in July 1981 and his last eclipse trip to what he called his "spiritual home" of Java to view a totality that passed near the town of Salatiga in June 1983.

Bok died of a heart attack at his home in Tucson, Arizona a little more than a month after that final trip. His body was bequeathed to the college of medicine at the University of Arizona.

Honors

Honorary appointments Vice-president of the International Astronomical Union (1970–74) Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences (1968) Honorary Member of the Astronomical Society of Australia Associate Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, London Jansky Prize (1972) awarded by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory "to recognize outstanding contributions to the advancement of radio astronomy." Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau Henry Norris Russell Lectureship (1982) awarded by the American Astronomical Society in recognition of a lifetime of excellence in astronomical research. Klumpke-Roberts Award (1982) awarded by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific to recognize outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy.

Named after him Lunar crater Bok (jointly with his wife Priscilla) – a 43-km diameter crater on the far side of the Moon Asteroid 1983 Bok (jointly with his wife Priscilla) – discovered by Elizabeth Roemer in 1975. Bok globules Bok Telescope - the Steward Observatory's 90-inch (2.3 m) telescope was named after him in 1996. C/1949 N1 - A comet that Bok co-discovered.

Memorial awards Bart J Bok Postdoctoral Fellowship, given out by the Astronomy Department of the University of Arizona and Steward Observatory. The Bok Prize is awarded annually by the Astronomical Society of Australia since 1989 to recognise outstanding research in astronomy by an Honours student or eligible master's student at an Australian university. Another Bok Prize is awarded by the Harvard University's Department of Astronomy since 1958 to recognise research in the area of Milky Way research by observational methods. Two Priscilla and Bart Bok Awards are jointly awarded each year by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the American Astronomical Society to astronomy-related projects at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, in recognition of the Boks' advocacy for astronomy education and work in public outreach.

Selected publications

Bok's ADS record.