Sinclair Smith

Sinclair Smith ( in Chicago – in Pasadena) was an American astronomer. His observations of the Virgo Cluster were among the first to suggest the existence of dark matter.

Biography Born in Chicago, Smith moved with his family to Italy in 1906 for two years. They then relocated to Indiana, where they lived until 1913, before settling in California.

As a child, he showed a great interest in mechanical design and drawing. He was hired as a draughtsman for the design of the Mount Wilson Observatory's 100-inch (2.5-metre) Hooker Telescope.

He earned his bachelor's degree from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1921, and in 1924, he obtained his Ph.D. for his work with John August Anderson. His doctoral work focused on the exploding wire method, used to obtain laboratory spectra at high excitation and ionization energies.

He then spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, and worked at the physics laboratory of the Mount Wilson Observatory for the rest of his life.

He died of cancer in 1938 at the age of 39.

Publications